Search Trends - Search Engine Marketing

I just noticed a comment from a few days ago on my post about the WordTracker free keyword tool. It was from Hilton at Trellian, the makers of Keyword Discovery. He mentioned that they have also jumped on bandwagon and are offering a free version of their tool. Well, it's about time. It's a good time to catch people's attention as Yahoo's tool is working only some of the time and may go down forever any day now (we'll see if it really happens) it's been 50/50 on whether it works for me the past couple weeks.

I've used Keyword Discovery for a while and I've been happy with it. The price of the paid version is more than WordTracker, but I like the ability to save a lot more projects and it's a lot more user friendly for building keyword lists. I have my doubts about the freshness of their data (is it really the most recent 12 months?), and I don't know exactly where their data is coming from. Their database of searches is pretty big--supposedly going back 12 months--but it's still a tiny sample compared to the total number of actual searches. This could cause issues of low searches or no searches for smaller niche keywords, but overall the tool does a pretty good job of offering up ideas on keywords to optimize your site for.

Also, I should mention one of the best aspects of this tool compared to the Overture tool is that they don't lump together misspellings and plurals. They show you the actual searches for words so you can see how people are actually searching.

Give the keyword tool a test drive

Labels: free tools, keyword research, keyworddiscovery, keywords

Jonathan Mendez's offers up 7 Ways to Optimize Your YouTube Tags...good stuff. It's all about keywords and search--even with video. Plus throw in a few adjectives that you might not use in your normal SEO and you've got a fully optimized YouTube video.

Labels: tags, video, youtube

I really don't get the logic behind the whole Belgium press lawsuit against Google. Even more than that, I don't get how Google lost the case (from the Google blog) I mean, seriously people, do you not understand the value that Google is providing for you in terms of traffic and exposure? Google didn't steal your content, they just linked to it with snippets. Besides, if you didn't want Google to index you stuff, all you had to do was ask. Am I missing something here or is Copiepresse just stupid? Er, I guess they won the lawsuit, so maybe it's the Belgian judge who ruled in their favor who's not playing with a full deck.

Labels: copiepresse, google, lawsuits

Not only is it Valentines Day today, (happy V-day), but I just noticed that this week is also random acts of kindness week. I've always been a proponent of random acts of kindness. Until today I didn't realize there was a week devoted to these random acts, but why not...even though we should always be looking for ways to help people and act kindly (the random part is optional), it's good to have a week devoted to the idea. I wonder how many other people know about it? They must have planned it to coincide with Valentine's day, but it seems like it makes it easier to forget with all the excitement about Valentine's...anyway, go out and do some good this week.

Check out the Random Acts of Kindness website for ideas and stories of what others are doing.

Labels: kindness, service

Jason Calacanis has been outspoken against SEO for quite a while. He recently relit the fire at the last SES show in Chicago. His comments and attitude about SEOs has generated a lot of discussion across the blogosphere. Danny Sullivan posted a very lengthy, but good rant explanation of why he's wrong about SEOs. Danny does a very good job of addressing the issues and presenting our side of the argument. I don't have much to add other than I think the real issue appears to Jason's enormous misunderstanding of what SEO really is and the value of the services we provide. That or he's just messing with us again to get a lot of buzz, and links from some of the most active, opinionated bloggers around (uh, yeah, that's us SEOs).

Or maybe he knew all along he could get some free SEO if he made a big enough stink? I'm referring to the "challenge" that Neil Patel made to Jason...that he would essentially optimize his site for the search engines and within 30 days he will see an increase in traffic of at least 10-20%. If traffic does increase, Jason has to post on his blog about how great SEO really is, and if traffic doesn't increase, Neil will post that SEO is over-rated. It's a good concept, although I'm not sure how Jason actually loses in this deal either way. If he wins the bet, he can gloat and say "I told you so." But if he "loses" the bet, he'll have a lot more traffic coming to his site for a long time. On the other hand, if traffic increases, it's good pulicity for Neil, so I guess it's a good thing all around--as long as Neil doesn't lose the bet.

I really want one of these: sweet touch screens. Here's a demo video, prepare to be dazzled:

Wordtracker recently released a Free Keyword Suggestion Tool. It's very similar to the Yahoo/Overture tool in how it works and the way it presents results. It's not the full-blown version of WordTracker, but it's a decent tool and it doesn't require a login or anything.

When I came into the office yesterday, the frist thing I was asked was whether I watched the SuperBowl or not. The next question was which commercial I liked best. No one asked me which team I was rooting for or which play I liked best, it was "which commercial did you like?" I think it's the only event I know of that people actually enjoy watching the commercials (myself included). Everything else I just Tivo and skip the commercials. Even two days after the big game, Google has a link right on their homepage to "Watch the Super Bowl Commericals on YouTube" Granted, Google owns YouTube so they stand to benefit from people watching videos on there, but they don't put links on their homepage on a whim. They put it up there because there is a HUGE demand for these commercials. Aside from being all over YouTube, searches for the Super Bowl commercials are among the top rising searches over the past few days.

My point with all of this is that your $2 million for a Super Bowl commercial buys a lot more these days. Of course you still get all the millions of viewers who will see your commercial during the game, but now you also get a huge surge of online viewers who are actually seeking out your commercial. If your commercial is good, you'll get a lot more mileage out of it in terms of buzz, but even the bad ones get a lot more attention than they deserve from bloggers and other sites that rank their best and worst Super Bowl ads.

Another cool thing I liked this year was the trend of user-generated videos. Some of the videos created by non-pros were awesome. My favorite in this genre was the Doritos commercial with the girl at the checkout. That was funny and it did a good job of shamelessly plugging the product without being annoying. I didn't catch all the commercials and haven't seen them all online yet, but so far, my overall favorite commercial was probably the Fist Bump beer commercial...

Labels: super bowl ads, video, youtube

Google is notorious for giving weak results for backlinks to a site using the link: command. They just released a new link tool as part of their webmaster tools that shows a lot more links to your site than you can see using the normal link: search. They say that it's still not all the links they know about, but it's a lot more than they used to offer, so it's definitely an improvement.

Danny Sullivan has a pretty comprehensive overview of the new link reporting tool.

I've tried it out just briefly and for most sites I've checked it provides a lot more useful information, but for at least one site, the new tool isn't showing any links to the homepage of the site, which is obviously not right, since a simple link: search shows nearly 100 links. Probably just a glitch, so I'll keep an eye on it.

To use the new tool, you just need to verify that you own the site through Google's webmaster central--although there have been reports that you can access link data on sites that you don't own. I'm sure they'll patch that hole quickly if they haven't already.

Labels: google, links

I've been seeing this story all over the place this morning about how an overzealous lawyer for the pork board is picking on a breastfeeding blogger about a shirt she was selling that said "the other white milk", promoting breast feeding.

The lawyers and whoever decided to make this an issue were not very smart. My personal feeling is that they have every right to protect their trademark, but they definitely got carried away in some of the stuff they implied in their letter. They could have handled it more tactfully and had it go over much more smoothly. Although I've never known a lawyer to handle things tactfully or smoothly. They love sending hate mail. It's one of the things that gives them joy, I guess.

When it's all said and done, I'm sure this whole thing won't affect pork sales at all. The Lactivist website will end up with a LOT more links from all over the place and everyone will eventually forget about the whole thing. My question is, have people ever tried to bait these trademark owners into sending hate mail so they can blog about it and generate a lot of buzz about the issue? I'm not saying that's what she did in this case (I'm sure she didn't), but it will end up being a positive thing for her site in terms of traffic, links, etc. Nothing like a little controversy to generate publicity (and links).

I got an email this morning from YSM offering up some tips on how to get your site ranked well with their new ranking algorithm. If you understand what works in Google Adwords, you should now be able to apply those same principles in Yahoo. Here are 5 specific tips they offer:

• * Include keywords in your ad (use our Insert Keyword feature)
  
• * Choose keywords for each ad group carefully.
  
• * Use ad testing.
  
• * Use our Excluded Keyword feature to optimize your Advanced match type ads.
  
• * Review your current bids and set a campaign budget to meet your business goals.
  

So, there you have it.

Labels: ppc, tips, yahoo

Didn't think there were still 10 search engines that matter? Well, you're right. As you look closely at the Nielsen/Netratings list of top 10 search providers for December, you'll find it no surprise that the engines in the seventh through tenth spots captured half a percent or less of the total search marketshare. Nobody than Yahoo had more than 8.4%, which is all MSN had for the month. Also, keep in mind that Google's dominance is a lot bigger than 50.8% because you've got AOL in the fourth spot, along with Earthlink and Comcast, which all simply use Google search. Ask.com has been quietly growing their marketshare with MyWay and a few other search partners using their search engine--although it seems like they all serve up Adwords ads as a huge percentage of their business model.



From ClickZ

Arrgh! I hate it when I screw up. I wish I could say it rarely happens, but that would be a lie. This time, I was in such a rush to send out our Web Targeted email newsletter--so I wouldn't break my new years resolution to send it out monthly. Of course, but the time it went out, the January newsletter as 5 minutes into February. The worst part is that in my haste to get the darned thing out, I neglected to change the date from December 2006 to January 2007--oops. I guess it's not a huge deal, but it really bugs me to mess up something so simple like that. If anyone got that email and wondered why you're getting the January newsletter on Feb 1, yet it says December, just cut me a little slack--it's late and I'm tired.

Here's the article I sent out in this month's newsletter:

Link Building Tips for 2007

Articles

Writing articles is a great way to establish a reputation in your industry. It is also an excellent way to establish a lot of highly relevant links to your website. Submit your articles to article syndication directories. Be sure to include a link back to your website in your author bio box. Use keywords in your links if possible. To get the widest possible exposure, submit your article to high traffic websites or ezines in your industry.

Press Releases

Online press releases are a great way to generate awareness of your company or products. They can also be a great source of links. Be sure to include links to your website in all press releases. The press releases are archived online and indexed by the search engines, and news sources that write about your release will often include a link in their article. The most effective press releases are those that offer timely and newsworthy information. Write your press releases from the perspective of a journalist and you'll have a better chance of having the release picked up by the media.

Member Organizations

You should be sure your site is linked from any organizations that you're a member of. This can include chambers of commerce, better business bureau, and industry organizations. Contact each organization and request a link. Even if they aren't currently linking to members, they will often link to you if you contact them directly and ask.

Forums and Blogs

Being actively involved in forums is a great way to establish a name for yourself in your industry. It is also a way to generate traffic and links to your site. As you read blogs related to your business and make meaningful comments (not spam), you'll find that people will begin to value your opinion. You'll get people clicking through on your link to learn more about you and the search engines might even start to notice the links. Be sure you understand the proper linking rules and etiquette for each blog or forum you participate in.

Provide Something of Value

It may be something as simple as an article or blog post that resonates with your audience. Or perhaps it's a funny video that everyone forwards to their friends. Or maybe it's the end all, be all online tool for your industry. Whatever "it" is, if you build something really remarkable, people will notice and link to it. Don't be shy about letting the world know about your stuff, either. It's a good idea to get the word out with a press release, article, or even a well worded email can work wonders to let the right people know about your cool new content/tool/video/whatever.

These are a few ideas to get you thinking of ways that you can get more sites linking to yours. Don’t be afraid to try new methods for getting links. Get creative. Get links.

Labels: link building, link popularity, links