SES Magazine July 2009 by Incisive Media

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contents

features

July 2009

Is There a Link Between search and Social?

SES San Jose Sneak Preview

GLOSSARY

Search marketers will soon be responsible for more than simply making web pages visible above the fold at search engines; they’ll need to become engaged in social feedback systems. §

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

Terms and acronyms every search marketer should know. §

more columns

15 Social Media Maxims for Marketers

3 Keys to a Successful Web Presence

10 Principles of the Tao of Post-Click Marketing

Is A Lack of Consistent Messaging Hurting your Conversions?

Outsourcing search marketing

columns

WHAT’s NEXT IN SEARCH?

When size matters: Managing retail Channels to Close the Sale

Tracking keywords from the search engines to the retail store

Search is on the verge of becoming an alwayson utility, integrated into the devices we routinely use to perform everyday tasks. What else is on the horizon for search and search marketers? §

As consumers seal their wallets, retailers are reeling. But by linking online search with offline inventories, you can develop loyalty and broaden your customer base. §

Retailers can now turn away from traditional media and embrace search marketing as the best in-store sales driver ever invented. §

The No. 1 online activity? No, not pornography. Social media is now king. Here, a list of fundamental guidelines and strategies for social media success. §

Search engine optimization is just one facet of online success. Here’s a quick checklist of strategies that will enhance your website and boost your visibility. §

From click to conversion, here are 10 measures you can take to create optimized paths that match your different ads and varying audience segments. §

Because user intent varies with every search, ensuring a consistent, relevant message — from the query to ad copy to landing pages — is easier said than done. §

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

WHAT IS WEB 3.0?

Google and Microsoft Change Their Ad Interfaces

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

Two of the most important search engine ad management consoles get facelifts. Learn what’s new. §

Staff

about SES Magazine

Magazine Managing Editor Drew Eastmead Contributors Julie Batten, Scott Brinker, Scott Dunlap, Mike Grehan, Mark Jackson, Kevin Lee, Rebecca Lieb, Erik Qualman, Melissa Ortiz, Michael Stone, Jonathan Treiber Cover Design Erik Hageman

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT VP, Content Development Stewart Quealy Senior Program Director Marilyn Crafts Program Coordinator Jackie Ortez

SALES & MARKETING VP, Publisher Matt McGowan Sales Directors Andrew Katz Elaine Mershon Elaine Romeo Peter Westerholm Account Executives Elizabeth Huston Katie O’Hea Marketing Director Angela Man Marketing Manager Christian Georgeou Event Client Services Mgr. JoAnn Simonelli Web Designer Rebecca Holz Online Operations Manager Louise Laberge Online Operations Assoc. Aleksey Gershin

OPERATIONS Director, Operations Michele McDermott Operations Manager Dan Hoskins

SEarch engine watch Managing Editor Kevin Newcomb News Correspondents Greg Jarboe Nathania Johnson Frank Watson Contributing Editors Tim Ash, Michael Boland, Eric Enge, Liana Evans, William Flaiz, Justilien Gaspard, Carrie Hill, Mark Jackson, Ron Jones, Sage Lewis, Elisabeth Osmeloski, Joshua Palau, Erik Qualman, Kevin Ryan, Aaron Shear, Gregg Stewart, David Szetela

SES Magazine is now in its third year and will reach a print circulation of more than 100,000 in 2009. In this issue, you’ll find articles on the latest trends in digital marketing, as well as a preview of our upcoming event, SES San Jose (Aug. 10-14). We are grateful to our contributors and readers alike, and we’re always interested to hear your feedback and learn about what topics you’d like to see (e-mail us at magazine@SearchEngineStrategies.com). For more information on advertising, subscribing, and contributing, or to view past issues, visit www.SearchEngineStrategies.com/ses-magazine. You can also follow us on Twitter: @sesmag.

Drew Eastmead | Managing Editor, SES Magazine

SES Advisory Board

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

Ron Belanger VP, Worldwide Agency Sales Omniture

Mike Grehan, Co-chair Global KDM Officer Acronym Media

Brett Crosby Group PPM Google

Anne Kennedy Managing Partner Beyond Ink

Randy Peterson

Bryan Eisenberg Co-founder Future Now, Inc.

John Marshall CTO Market Motive

Stewart Quealy, Co-chair

Jeff Ferguson Sr. Director, Online Marketing Local.com

Lee Odden

Clickz Executive Editor Managing Editor, News Managing Editor, Stats Senior Editor, News Copy Chief

Pauline Ores

Matthew Bailey President SiteLogic

Sr. Marketing Manager, Social Media

IBM Corporation

Erynn Petersen Sr. Manager, Ad Platform Evangelism

Microsoft

Search Marketing Innovation Mgr.

Procter & Gamble

VP, Content Development

Incisive Media

CEO

TopRank Online Marketing

Advertiser Index

Anna Maria Virzi Zach Rodgers Enid Burns Kate Kaye Erin Brenner

For information about advertising in future issues, please contact sales at sales@SearchEngineStrategies.com or (212) 457-4993.

corporate CEO, North America William Pollak SVP, Events Kevin Vermeulen MD, Operations John Klein

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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§ FOCUS: looking ahead

What’s Next in Search? here’s search going? What do marketers, especially those in SEO, have to take in to account when planning for the future of search marketing campaigns?

Expect More Universality

ComScore research shows that universal (or blended) search results are increasingly dominating SERPs. In early 2008, 17 percent of searches returned some type of blended result. By the end of last year, that figure had climbed to 31 percent, and it continues to rise. This is true across all the engines, and Microsoft’s launch of Bing confirms there’s no end in sight. More blended results — the appearance on the page of video, book, news, local, and you-name-it results — means stiffer competition for valuable SERP real estate. All those headers, thumbnails, and images take up space on the page, allowing for fewer results to appear in the top results returned by the engines.

SEO Gets More Complicated

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

Search Will Go Social

It will become increasingly difficult to optimize based on keywords alone. Context and searcher intent will shape the results returned to individual searchers on their queries. Search engines already take behavioral data and individual search history into account when returning results. Watch for

SES § July 2009 {San Jose Preview}

By Rebecca Lieb

them to rely on social and network affinities as well. The groups and organizations individuals gravitate to speak volumes about the direction of their intentions. While introducing social elements into search adds another not-to-be-sneezed-at layer of complexity on things, it will also make search an even more valuable feedback mechanism than it already is. Reputation management and listening will become inextricably linked to search, as consumers grow their online networks and publicly share their affinities; predilections; and brand-, product-, and service-related stories.

Platform = Intent

Searchers aren’t just searching on the big three search engines. YouTube is now the second largest search engine in the world, query-wise, trailing only Google. MySpace gets more queries than AOL or Ask. com, while eBay, craigslist, and Amazon combined (980 million) approach MSN.com (1.04 billion) in search queries, according to comScore. Website visitors are more sophisticated. They’re adapting their search behavior to the appropriate search platforms. It’s a development that may make SEO a little bit less complicated, assuming marketers develop the right mindset. It’s time to start thinking about all types of sites as search engines, not just as video sites or classifieds or shopping sites. If you can search it, you can optimize it. Rank-Mobile’s Cindy Krum is enthusiastic about optimizing apps for sale in the iPhone app store. Heck, that’s a search engine too, if you think about it. And if you don’t think about it that way, you should start.

Smart Phones = Smarter Searching

Mobile will help blow out the search space. Google’s Sergey Brin recently noted that one third of Google queries coming from Japan are made on mobile devices. While mobile phone sales are flat, smartphone sales are through the roof these days, contributing to the trend in this part of the world. Think geo-location and apps as the drivers in mobile search, particularly servicebased apps, such as restaurant finders; and highly specialized apps, such as MizPee (clean bathrooms), TapIt (free local water bottle refills), and the AAA discount app for members of the auto club. These are ad free but not sponsor free and have the potential to drive plenty of local, walk-in business.

The Long-Term

What’s waiting on the search horizon? Educated guesses will have to take the place of crystal balls. Here are some prognostications: Real-time results. What about something that happened 10 minutes ago? With the possible exception of Twitter, immediate events aren’t searchable or readily crawlable. They will be. Google has as much as admitted it’s on the case. Multimedia as searchable and optimizable. Who’s this a picture of? What song is this clip from? A few highly technical and specialized search engines are tackling these issues now, but eventually such queries will become much easier to search for, as well as become integrated into “oldfashioned” search engines. Location, location, location. Geo-targeted results will grow in importance, particularly with the rise of smartphones. Expect hyper-local geotargeting in the future, not dissimilar to the direction that companies like NearbyNow are taking. Imagine walking into a mall or supermarket and using your phone to find the right jeans at the lowest price or instantly learning what brand of corn flakes is on special and where they are in the store. All search, all the time. Finally, search will be an always-on utility, integrated into the devices you routinely use to perform everyday tasks. When you think about it, your TV or DVR program guides are search. So is your car’s GPS system and your iPod’s playlist menu. Searchability, and attendant marketing possibilities, will show up in in-store kiosks, perhaps even on your refrigerator. Even more than now, search will become the de facto way we navigate our lives. Now if only the search engines would come up with a way for me to remember where I left the keys... § Rebecca Lieb oversees the U.S. operations of Econsultancy, the leading source of independent advice and insight on digital marketing and e-commerce. The author of "The Truth About Search Engine Optimization," Rebecca has written on media for The New York Times and was ClickZ's editor-in-chief for over seven years. @lieblink

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SearchEngineStrategies.com Â§ SES

WHeN sIze MAtTeRs Managing Retail Channel Conversion to Close the Sale

By Scott Dunlap etailers are struggling to survive in an economic perfect storm. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index was 25.0 in February 2009, the fallout of growing unemployment and a stunning erosion of consumer wealth. With the credit market in paralysis, lenders have slashed consumer access to credit. Inventories in the U.S. shot up by $6.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008, and retailers, themselves the subjects of credit rating downgrades, are loath to invest in inventories that may not move. According to a March 11 report in The Wall Street Journal, “the sharp decline in consumer spending is causing [retailers] to rethink capital-intensive expansion strategies and focus on their core businesses.” While brick-and-mortar sales plummet, e-commerce sales continue to grow, albeit at a snail’s pace. In January 2009, e-commerce sales grew 2 percent over January 2008, while offline retail sales declined 6 to 14 percent in the same period (source: comScore). Cash-strapped consumers use the web to compare prices but are often put off by processing and delivery costs charged by online retailers. Many retailers won’t make it through the current recession. Key to survival will be smart inventory management and adoption of an astute multichannel strategy. An important component of that strategy should be active management of online/offline shopping conversion to best serve high-value customers.

Don’t Lose Your High-Value Customers

Most retailers understand that online shopping drives offline sales, yet very few are able to track that conversion at a granular level. In fact, it’s not uncommon for retailers to have separate online and offline merchandising organizations with little or no integration. Online shoppers tend to be high-value customers, so guiding their conversion behavior is very important. Multichannel retailers have the opportunity to steer these motivated customers to their stores, where they

SES § July 2009 {San Jose Preview}

FOCUS: retail & inventory §

are likely to browse (as opposed to hunting online) and make additional purchases. As retailers face tough decisions about which brick-and-mortar locations to maintain, they are scrutinizing the value of their foot traffic. Mall owners are rethinking the benefits of malls as social hangouts, with many trimming their operating hours. To maintain the loyalty of their high-value customers, retailers need to have the right inventory in the right place at a competitive price. And, in today’s highly competitive environment, retailers need to know if or why an online shopper was not converted to an offline buyer. This feedback loop, which could be critical in correcting inventory or pricing misalignments, is missing from most multichannel operations.

In-Store Inventory Is Essential to Multichannel Merchandising

Although most retailers understand that high-value consumers still prefer to purchase products offline even though they’ve researched them online, few retailers proactively drive the conversion process. According to a 2005 comScore study, 63 percent of consumers who converted from online search to sale made their purchase in a brick-and-mortar store. Consumers who have already compared and selected a product online want to know not only where they can purchase locally, but also whether the product is in stock at a given location. Once a customer has determined a brand and model based on online research, the retail outlet of choice is still up for grabs. According to a Boston Consulting Group study, proximity to an offline store is the main reason why consumers switch merchants, while price and sensory perception of the product were the main reasons for switching brands. Nevertheless, many retailers create channel conversion barriers that lose sales and erode customer loyalty. According to a Boston Consulting Group study of leading multichannel retailers, more than half indicated that their online and offline inventories were not integrated. That means that a retailer may lose a motivated purchaser either because local inventory did not match demand or because the purchaser

was uninformed of product availability and Want to give your customers a more turned to an alternative source. personalized online experience? Women’s apparel merchandising offers an ideal example of the multichannel conunCheck out SES San Jose in August. To learn more, see pages 15-20, drum. Designers and retailers spend millions or register online today at of dollars promoting women’s clothing www.SESsanjose.com through advertising and product placement. They depend on impulse purchasers, much to gain by having alternate sizes at particularly high-value consumers, convertthe ready, plus appropriate complementary ing emotion to action. Since some retailers or accessory items. Creating a personalized have discrete online and offline inventories, experience can up-sell the customer while a woman who is inspired to buy the apparel developing a relationship that is impossible may not find it online. Or, if she finds it to replicate online. online but wants instant gratification, there’s Based on our experience helping online no easy way for her to find a local store that customers find products locally, we see has it in her size. By leaving a motivated extraordinary opportunities for highly intecustomer on her own to track something grated multichannel retailers. down, the retailer risks losing her attention Prompted by online search behavior and and, ultimately, missing out on the sale. inventory inquiries, retailers can adjust Providing online consumers with offline inventories to match demand trends. By inventories solves this problem. Once the monitoring spikes woman in the above Forward-looking retailers can in online activity, example can search for benefit from monitoring brand retailers can ramp up the apparel online, via her computer or mobile activity on social networks and offline inventories to delivering product availability capitalize on product phone, and locate the information to mobile devices. awareness and internearest store’s realest. Forward-looking time inventory, it’s retailers can benefit from monitoring brand likely that the retailer will close the sale. activity on social networks and delivering In fact, 75 percent of customers who product availability information to mobile search inventory availability and place an devices. item on hold through my company, NearThe fittest retailers are the most likely byNow, actually follow through with a to survive the economic downturn. Part of purchase. This statistic compares very that fitness regime will be lean pricing to favorably to the 25 percent of buyers who compete with discounters. Also key will be convert from online research to sale, either the agility to respond to customers instantly online or offline. and the flexibility to make the right products available whenever and wherever customers Broaden Your Customer Base want to receive them. Integrating purchasing and Gather Intelligence channels is an essential step that will help Linking online search to offline invenretailers stay alive and, ultimately, thrive. § tories has a number of advantages beyond closing an individual sale. Retailers have Scott Dunlap is the CEO of NearbyNow, Inc, a unique digital the opportunity to bring new customers shopping concierge service that into their stores through proactive channel empowers consumers to search conversion. online for the most convenient loMen, who account for 50 percent of cal source for their favorite prodonline purchases but only about 30 percent ucts and brands, and pick them of in-store purchases (source: Forrester up at local retail outlets. Scott Research), represent a valuable opportuhas more than 14 years’ experience in the technology nity for retailers who can create the approfield, and was an early executive at a number of sucpriate in-store experience. For instance, if cessful companies, including E.piphany Software and a customer comes into a store to try on a Loudcloud/Opsware. He holds a B.S. from the University of Oregon, and an MBA from Stanford University. product found online, the savvy retailer has SearchEngineStrategies.com § SES

§ FOCUS: retail & inventory

Tracking Keywords From the Search Engines Into the Retail Store By Jonathan Treiber

hen retailers think about driving traffic into their physical stores, they’ve always turned to traditional media, including print, radio and TV. Why? More people are turning to the Internet for content, entertainment, and networking, rendering traditional media less effective at reaching the same types of people as it traditionally has. Before you buy practically anything either online or offline, you will undoubtedly start with a Google search — 1 billion searches a day, according to a recent study. What survey data tells us is that 86 percent of consumers initiate their purchases online, but only 7 percent of retail sales happen on the web. Furthermore, search marketing drives billion $16 in offline Ad spending, including search, retail spending for is expected to reach every $1 in online $25.4 billion in 2009 and retail spending. $29.1 billion next year. This data in aggreSource: Jack Myers Publishing, 2009 gate doesn’t really A For more details, check out ClickZ Stats. tell us what kind of online marketing drives specific types of in-store sales. What if retailers could actually turn away from traditional media and embrace search marketing for what it is — the best in-store sales driver ever invented. Paid search is a huge driver of in-store sales, which was referenced in one recent campaign funded by Cabela’s sporting goods. They hired search agency Performics to run the online search campaign with an in-store printable coupon. The results were astounding. Based on the redemption results, 10 percent of the consumers who saw the ad clicked through to the landing page for the coupon; 40 percent of those who fetched the coupon then redeemed it in a Cabela’s store. That’s a 4 percent click to sale (in-store)

$25.4

SES § July 2009 {San Jose Preview}

conversion. Most e-retailers would jump “New York pharmacy near highway.” The with joy for a 4 percent online conver- consumer will see a natural search ranking sion rate. These types of results have been for an individual Rite Aid pharmacy and corroborated across various retail verticals, download the in-store coupon customized such as apparel with S&K Menswear and tax for that location. When the consumer redeems the offer at preparation with Jackson Hewitt. The difference with the last two merchants that specific branch, the unique barcode data will track the in-store was that keyword purchase all the way tracking was enabled. Search marketers can apply How do you track a keyword tracking techniques in back to the micro site keyword offline into a thousands of ways, from local that was optimized for that particular search retail store, you might search to mobile search and term. Brilliant. ask? Basically, S&K everything in between. Search marketers Menswear and Jackcan apply these techson Hewitt captured a unique code at the point of sale (POS) niques in thousands of ways within the physthat was dynamically generated on in-store ical retail world, from local search to mobile coupons. When a consumer typed specific search and everything in between. The challenge for the search industry is keywords and clicked on the in-store coupon, the search link with the keyword ID how to gain visibility with major retailers to was converted into a unique barcode, which demonstrate that search is not just a viable means, but rather a critical driver, of generwas redeemed at the POS. With the offer scanned and then processed ating in-store sales. With a weak economy, marketers are by a technology partner, the transactional data was attributed to the specific keyword slashing budgets but need sales more than that drove that in-store redemption. Alas, ever. Search marketing has always reprekeyword tracking for in-store sales was born. sented one of the most cost-effective marketWith tracking in place, these merchants, ing channels to drive online sales. The data among others adopting this technology, are is showing that it might be even more effecable to optimize for the keywords that drove tive in driving in-store sales. Retailers must embrace search marketing positive ROI and drop the ones that did not, resulting in a much more efficient use of and jettison traditional media to compete in today’s environment for increased share of search marketing budgets. The best part is, keyword tracking and consumer spending. Once retailers recogsearch optimization doesn’t end with paid nize and capitalize on this opportunity, the search. Natural search has been shown to search marketplace will change forever. § deliver tremendous results for physical Jonathan Treiber is CEO and coretailers. Creative marketers have customfounder of RevTrax, a leading ized landing pages for specific merchant technology company focused on locations, capturing the natural search for tracking the impact of online marlong-tail keywords and search terms. keting efforts, including paid One such company is Fabulous Savings, search, on offline retail sales. otherwise known as FABU, out of Toronto. Jonathan has led the company Their experts have figured out a way to optithrough its initial product develmize merchant landing pages on long-tail opment, launch, several rounds of capital raising, team keywords for specific locations. expansion, and several key business partnerships with For example, they can create a land- major media companies interested in RevTrax’s crossing page optimized for the search term channel tracking technology. @jtreiber

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To redeem your $50. If you have a Facebook account: Login to Facebook and go to www.facebook.com/ads/manage. Click on “Billing”. Click on the “Funding Sources” tab, then click “Enter Coupon Code”. If you do not have an account: Go to www.facebook.com/ads and create your ad. Redeem your credit code after the payment step. Promotional Terms: The promotional coupon code and the advertising credits of USD $50 are valid only for purchase of advertising through Facebook’s online advertising system. Advertisers will be charged for incremental cost of advertising that exceeds the promotional credit. Advertisers will need to suspend their ads if they do not wish to receive additional charges beyond the free credit amount. Subject to ad approval, valid registration and acceptance of the generally applicable Facebook Advertising. Terms and Conditions: www.facebook.com/terms_ads.php. The promotional coupon code and advertising credits are non-transferable and may not be sold or bartered. Offer may be revoked at any time for any reason by Facebook. One promotional code per new advertiser. Must be a new advertiser. Expires September 30, 2009

SearchEngineStrategies.com § SES

SES ยง July 2009 {San Jose Preview}

SearchEngineStrategies.com ยง SES

By Mike Grehan

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

hy would anyone go to an search engine optimization (SEO) firm for the execution of a social campaign? I’m trying not to use the term “social media” because that term hardly reflects what is essentially modern public relations. Generally speaking, the average SEO shop is a technical resource that helps clients develop or re-engineer web pages to make them more crawler-friendly. In my experience, the majority of SEO shops rarely even provide link-building services. That said, I’ve always believed that link-building is

The idea that the big connection between search and social is based on so-called link bait is a short-lived notion.

SES § July 2009 {San Jose Preview}

COVER STORY / FOCUS: social media §

more of a public relations and marketing Social Answering Systems Need to jumpstart your social media exercise than it is an SEO one. Social answering systems are based campaign? Back to my question: If your SEO firm on people with expertise in specific fields Check out SES San Jose in August. doesn’t even provide fundamental PR and providing opinion and answers to particuTo learn more, see pages 15-20, marketing services, such as directory listlar questions. Some systems tap into social or register online today at ings and link building, why would you networks to get information from friends www.SESsanjose.com choose it to help with social? and friends of friends, such as MechaniLet’s strip this to the bone immediately. cal Zoo’s Aardvark and ChaCha for mobile tags, reducing the noise, and amplifying the Many SEO shops see the application of information seekers. information signal. some kind of social campaign as a novelty These systems prove to be extremely An algorithm called TagSearch has been method of getting links for their clients. useful for getting answers that are hard developed by researchers in the center’s This is where you should stop and think to find using the more common keywordAugmented Social Cognition (ASC) group. before you reach out to an SEO shop for based systems, such Its prototype is called social, or before it tries to sell the concept as Google and other Information-seeking on the MrTaggy. Come on to you. major search engines. guys, you’re scienweb is no longer a solitary Understanding how a search engine web Of course, the idea tists. You could have activity of a single person. crawler works and optimizing web pages of social answercome up with a better have nothing to do with PR and marketing. ing systems has been name than that. But The idea that the big connection between around for quite some time. You can track hey, if something called Twitter can grab search and social is based on so-called link Mark Ackerman’s “Answer Garden” back the attention of the entire planet... bait is a short-lived notion. to the early ’90s. But it’s only now that The group recently completed a Online social elements will have a huge they’re beginning to see some real traction. 30-subject study of MrTaggy and analyzed impact on search in the future. And it will The effectiveness of these systems will interaction and user interface design. The have little to do with simply attracting depend on their efficiency in utilizing findings seem to be quite promising. The links. search and recommendation algorithms to empirical results show that users can effecCurrently, I’m working on a thought return the most relevant past answers and tively use data generated by social tagging paper that addresses how collective intelfurther develop the knowledge base. as navigational advice. The results also ligence will enhance information retrieval suggest that the opportunity for interaconline. Just as the research community tive feedback and the recommendations Social Feedback Systems became tremendously active in information offered by the related tags supported users Think ratings and stars. Social feedback retrieval on the web during the late ’90s and in exploring unfamiliar topic areas. systems are based on social attention data to early 2000s, so it is again. But this time it’s There’s not enough room in this column rank search results or content items. Search not all about hyperlink-based ranking algoto go into further detail. But hopefully engines can derive this information from rithms; it’s more about information-seeking you’ll get the gist of the social networking usage logs, or you can elicit information support systems (ISSS). These systems are connection to search. by providing website visitors with voting being designed to meet information seekWhat does it mean for search marketers? mechanisms, such as tags, bookmarks, and ers’ broader requirements. It means that, in the future, the new signals rating systems. Information retrieval researchers usually will require new skills well beyond those There’s currently a ton of noise in what depict informationrequired for SEO. § are generally referred seeking on the web as Social media is essentially to as social media a solitary activity of a Mike Grehan is global KDM offimodern public relations. sites, such as Digg single person. Yet this cer with New York-based Acroand Delicious, where view is beginning to nym Media. He has been involved tagging abounds. Interestingly, Ma.gnolia change as more evidence of collaborative in online marketing since 1995 closed down earlier this year and is now and is recognized in the industry search and social bookmarking emerges. being rebuilt as an invitation-only commuas an expert in the search marThis means search marketers will need nity bookmarking service, due to launch keting field. He has written multo change strategies in the future — from tiple books and white papers on this summer. simply making web pages visible above the the subject. His second edition of Search Engine MarScientists at the Palo Alto Research fold at search engines, to becoming engaged keting: The Essential Best Practice Guide, gained Center have been working on a prototype with opinion leaders in web communities. plaudits from leading industry figures, and his newscross between a search engine and a recomTwo kinds of social search systems are at letter attracts more than 17,000 online marketers. mendation engine. The experiment is aimed Mike is a sought-after speaker for the world’s major the forefront of research: social answering at leveraging the knowledge contained in online marketing conferences. @mikegrehan and social feedback. SearchEngineStrategies.com § SES

§ FOCUS: social media

15 Social Media Maxims for Marketers

By Erik Qualman ocial media has overtaken pornography as the No. 1 online activity, according to Hitwise data. Facebook added 100 million users in less than a year to top the 200 million user mark. If Facebook were a country, it would overtake Indonesia as the fourth largest country in the world by September at this pace. Social media’s growth is now being aided by the baby boomer generation. The fastest growing segment on Facebook is composed of females age 55 to 65, as they try to better

connect with their kids and grandchildren. Heck, even the Pope has joined Facebook, launching a social media connection site. With things moving so quickly, how can companies and marketers stand a chance at keeping up with it all? First, admit that you can’t keep up. But, that doesn’t mean you should throw up your hands in despair. Some fundamental principles will help you keep your sanity and reap a healthy return. Here are 15 social media maxims:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SES § July 2009 {San Jose Preview}

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

SES SAN JOSE Aug. 10-14

——— sneak preview ———

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www.SearchEngineStrategies.com/sanjose SearchEngineStrategies.com § SES

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

To register, or for more details, visit

www.SearchEngineStrategies.com/sanjose

Speakers include

Sponsors include

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Nicholas Fox Business Product Mgmt Director, AdWords, Google

7Search Advertise.com Acquisio Acronym Media Acxiom Adfare Video Solutions AdGooroo AdManage adMarketplace affiliate.com Ask Sponsored Listings AT&T Interactive Best of the Web blinkx

Mike Grehan Global KDM Officer Acronym Media

Anne Kennedy Managing Partner & Founder Beyond Ink

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Charlene Li Co-author, Groundswell Founder, Altimeter Group

ideaLaunch Idearc Search Marketing Interwoven iSpionage KeywordMax LinkWorth Localeze LookSmart Lyris Marchex Marin Software Market Motive Moniker Network Solutions LLC

OnDialog Orange Soda PeoplePond Performics Pixelsilk Platform-A PRWeb Reply.com Rosetta SearchAgency.com SearchIgnite Search Marketing Standard SEMJ.org SEO, Inc.

SLI Systems SpyFu Submit Express Superpages TMP Directional Marketing Trellian Tyloon, Inc. Website Magazine WebTrends Wpromote Inc. Yahoo! Yield Software Yieldbuild/Hubpages

Encyclopaedia Britannica EyeBlaster, Inc. Fidelity FTD Gap, Inc. Gateway Bank Google H&R Block Harry and David Harvard Business Online Hewlett Packard Home Depot HSBC, Inc. Intel Corp. Jewelry Television Kodak Lemark Macy’s McAffee Microsoft MIT

Mitsubishi International Morgan Stanley MSN MTV Networks NBC Universal New York Times Nielsen//NetRatings Nike Oracle Overstock.com Overture Palm, Inc. PayPal, Inc. Petco Pfizer Pier 1 Imports Prudential Realty QVC R.H. Donnelley Seiko Instruments Sharper Image

Shopzilla Shutterfly Starbucks Taco Bell The Weather Channel TIVO T-Mobile Travelocity United HeathCare U.S. Army U.S. Federal Government ValPak Verizon Walgreens Walt Disney Company Wells Fargo Whitepages.com Yahoo Yellowpages.com Zillow.com

Past attendees include

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Clay Shirky Author Here Comes Everybody For more information on an upcoming SES conference near you, visit SearchEngineStrategies.com

Brafton Business.com Click Forensics, Inc. Digger, Inc. Direct Agents Interactive DoubleClick Efficient Frontier Engine Ready Software Enquisite eZanga Facebook Findology Hydra Network iCrossing

SES § July 2009 {San Jose Preview}

1-800 Contacts 1-800 Dentist 1-800 PetMeds AAA National office About.com Adobe Systems, Inc. Amazon.com American Airlines American Greetings American Honda Motor Ameriquest Mortage AOL, LLC Apple, Inc. Ask.com AT&T Avenue A | Razorfish Bank of America Bell South Best Buy Blinkx BTOB Magazine

Business Week Carat Fusion CarFax Century 21 Charles Schwab Chase CheapFlights, LTD Circuit City Cisco Systems, Inc. CitiGroup Clorox CMP Networks CNET Networks Coca-Cola Enterprises Commission Junction Dell, Inc. Dillards DoubleClick Earthlink, Inc. eBay Edmunds Inc.

Aug. 10-14 | McEnery Convention Center www.SearchEngineStrategies.com/sanjose REGISTRATION QUESTIONS? E-mail registration@SearchEngineStrategies.com Phone +1 (800) 955-2719

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Agenda

Day 1: Tuesday, Aug. 11 Search Fundamentals

Track

Search & Community

Search for the C-Suite

Search & Measurement

Search & the Future

Conference Welcome & Opening Keynote: Clay Shirky, Author, Here Comes Everybody

9-10a 10:30-11:30a

Introduction to Search Engine Marketing

Optimize for Search & Engage the Community

The Adaptive CMO: New Digital Marketing

Always be Testing: Marketing Optimization

Search: Where to Next?

11:45a-12:45p

Successful Site Architecture

Using Search to Find Missing Persons

The View From the CMO’s Office

Creating a Web Analytics Culture

The Next Wave for Online Video

1:45-2:45p

Persuasive Messaging in Your Content Strategy

Turning the Social Web Into Real ROI

Integration: The New CMO Imperative

Turn Web Analytics into a Money-Making Machine

Semantic Technology & Search

3-4p

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

How SEO Can Help Save the Publishing Industry

Going Digital Without Impacting Your Brand

Meaningful SEO Metrics: Go Beyond the Numbers

Where Will Customers Be Searching in Five Years?

4:30-5:30p

Search Advertising 101

Convergence of Smart Phones & Local Search

Performance Pricing: What Every CMO Must Know

Extreme Makeover Conversion Edition

Launching a Global Website agenda continued on next page A

Sample Sessions: Tuesday

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

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

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

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

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

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

SearchEngineStrategies.com § SES

Agenda continued

Day 2: Wednesday, Aug. 12 Fundamentals

Search for the Small Business

Vertical & B2B

Geek Speak

ClickZ/OMS

9-10:15a

Keywords & Content: Search Marketing Foundations

Social Media for the Little Guy

The Death of Last Click Attribution & Its Impact

Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues

Igniting Viral Campaigns: From Links to UGC

10:45-12p

Google Sponsored Session

Search on a Dime

Microsoft Sponsored Session

Landing Page Testing & Tuning

Sponsored Session

Track

1-2p

Afternoon Keynote: Nicholas Fox, Business Product Management Director, AdWords, Google

2:30-3:45p

The Power of Linking: Link Building Basics

Google Sponsored Session

Four Paths to Success in a Tough Travel Economy

Omniture Sponsored Session

Social Media: Managing Conversations

4-5:15p

Findabilty Formula: The Easy Approach to SEM

Turning Simple Change into Big Profit

The BuyerSphere Project

Real-World Multivariate Testing

Social Media: White Hat vs. Black Hat

Expo Hall Hours

Tuesday, Aug. 11

Wednesday, Aug. 12 10-4p

10a-6:30p

For more information on becoming a sponsor or exhibitor, visit

www.SearchEngineStrategies.com/sanjose/exhibiting.html

Day 3: Thursday, Aug. 13 Organic

Track

Advanced PPC

Geek Speak

Clinic

Morning Keynote: Charlene Li, Co-author, Groundswell

9-10a SEO Through Blogs & Feeds

Advanced Paid Search Techniques

Electronic Contacts & the Long Arm of the Law

Ads in a Quality Score World

Extreme Makeover: Live Site Clinic!

News Search SEO

Search ROI: Measuring More than Conversion

Brand & Reputation Management

Follow the Carrot: Cool Mobile Apps

Extreme Makeover: Live Twitter & Blogging Clinic

Advanced SEO Roundtable

Advanced Keyword Research

Independent SEMs/SEOs: Issues & Answers

Images & Search Engines: Getting the Full Picture

Extreme Makeover: Live Landing Page Clinic

How Storytelling Matches Up With Marketing

Brainstorming the Paid Search Super Tool

In-House SEO: Structuring For Success

Search Becomes the Display OS

Extreme Makeover: Why Am I Not Making Sales?

10:30-11:45a 12:45-2p 2:15-3:30p 3:45-5p

Organizational

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

Sample Sessions: Wednesday

Sample Sessions: Thursday

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

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

SES § July 2009 {San Jose Preview}

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Training Workshops: Aug. 10 & 14 Monday, Aug. 10: SEM/SEO Training

Friday, Aug. 14: SES Training

Search Engine Optimization Training (8:30a-5:30p) Focusing on white-hat search engine-compliant SEO methods, the course covers techniques that allow you to change your sites while staying away from the techniques that will get you in trouble. Others who have completed the extended course have raved about it.

Full-day $1,345; half-day $745. Learn more at www.SearchEngineStrategies.com/sanjose/training.php

SEO & Direct Marketing Tactics for e-Commerce Websites (9-12p): In the world of e-commerce, merchants need to have an acute awareness of search engine optimization to compete. However, principles of direct marketing must also be applied to increase the sales rates, impressions, and visibility of your site. Combining these two practices can result in a site that dominates the search results and provides profitable returns for the owner.

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

These workshops provide the practices, applications, and hands-on exposure you need to become — and remain — a top performer in your field. This in-depth training in a small class setting ensures that your instructor is accessible for informal one-onone or small group discussions. Whether you’re a consultant, site designer, website owner, or in-house marketing professional, this is an opportunity to experience firsthand the latest developments in search engine strategy. Regardless where you are in the SEO and SEM process, you will leave these intensive workshops with the necessary skills to improve your business results and take your search engine marketing to another level. Workshops include: ¢ Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Workshop: A search-engine friendly website is a user-friendly, search-friendly, and persuasive site that converts visitors into buyers. Real Big Ideas for Real Small Businesses: Consumers and businesses are tightening their belts. For small businesses on tight budgets, the inability to advertise can be the kiss of death. But for small businesses with a bit of creativity and an understanding of online marketing, the Internet can be a lucrative launch point.

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

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

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

¢ Mobile Marketing 101 : The session will focus on mobile SEO, but will also touch on driving traffic and conversions with mobile applications, text messaging and mobile e-mail. You’ll hours learn what you need to know to develop, launch, and track a The average user spends 3 mobile marketing hours, 14 minutes, and 36 strategy.

seconds on Facebook each month.

Source: Nielsen Online, 2009

Special Events Tuesday, Aug. 11: Live Panel Review Join us from 4:30-5:30 p.m. as top candidates for certification in Internet marketing undergo their final project — a live panel review gauntlet, which will play out like a wild fusion between “American Idol,” a Ph.D. �� dissertation defense, and a lightninground news roundtable show. The event will feature: ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢

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

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

Witness the live dissertation on the latest standards, or opt to have your website or campaign evaluated by the new masters of Internet marketing. These candidates have completed up to three months of Market Motive master certification training, as well as testing from our top speakers and the most recognized leaders in SEO, PPC, web analytics, and social media. They will vie for faculty endorsements under the scrutiny of a live audience. The dream team panel includes: ¢ Bryan Eisenberg on conversion optimization ¢ Greg Jarboe & Matt Bailey on social media ¢ Avinash Kaushik & John Marshall on web analytics ¢ Todd Malicoat on SEO ¢ Surprise guests and you!

SearchEngineStrategies.com § SES

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

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SAVE $200 through July 24, and SAVE an additional 15% when you use your keycode* *Your keycode begins with “KEYSJ” and is located above your name on the mailing label, found on the magazine cover.

SES § July 2009 {San Jose Preview}

FOCUS: online planning §

3 Keys to a Successful Web Presence henever I ask a prospect what his goals are, all too often the answer is, “We want to rank in the top three results for keywords A, B, and C.” Is that really a goal? Now, I understand that high rankings (or, rather, organic search traffic) are important. I sincerely believe that a sound organic search strategy should be the core of every company’s marketing efforts. This goes back to the old adage of running a business (location, location, location). You must be where people are actively searching for your product or service offerings. However, imagine that you had the perfect retail location, and yet your storefront was filthy. Perhaps there isn’t as much as a sign with your company’s name on the front of the building. Perhaps, once you get into the location, not a single item has a price tag, and the salespeople are nowhere to be found. That traffic coming through your parking lot isn’t going to help much, is it? There are three basic rules that you need to follow to have a successful web presence: brand matters usability matters search engine optimization matters

Brand Matters

The look and feel of your website is a key component to online success. For example, last summer, a retailer that was enjoying great rankings in the search engines approached my company about a possible redesign of their website. When I pulled up the site, it was very evident that these folks needed a facelift. The site was very ’90s, with no brand — not even a logo — and it was poorly organized. This e-commerce website was typical of many: It was graphics-heavy, wasn’t formatted consistently, and had little to offer in terms of (keyword-rich) product descriptions. Bottom line: There was no way that I would drop my credit card info on this site. I didn’t trust it. If I were a common searcher,

I’d probably spend about five seconds on the page that I landed on, then hit the back button and check out the next result. Build a website that exudes credibility and trust with your target audience. Because online, a competitor is always next door to your perfect location. And, next door to them is another competitor. Get the picture?

Usability Matters

Let’s assume your website looks great now. So, if you manage to get the traffic to your site, you probably want people to fill out a lead form, call you, or buy a product. Too often, prospects tell me that a phone call is a major point of emphasis for them, yet you can’t easily find a phone number on their pages. Check some of the most successful e-commerce or lead-gen websites, and you’ll notice that most of them display their phone number on the top right of every page. Little things like this can have a dramatic impact on your success. Some people make a lot of money consulting on landing page optimization for paid search efforts. If you’re looking for a great book, check out Tim Ash’s Landing Page Optimization, or get some tips in his Search Engine Watch “By The Numbers” column. Every click/visitor to your site is valuable. Yet many don’t put the effort to get the most out of every click. Once you get people to your site, what do you want them to do? Download a white paper? Sign up for a newsletter? Complete a lead form? Now, be honest with yourself. Are you making this action obvious to your visitors? People on the web have very short attention spans. That brings me to another point: How long does it take your website to load? A free tool to check your site’s load time is available at http://tools.pingdom.com.

Search Engine Optimization Matters

Now, just because I put SEO last on this list doesn’t mean that this is the last thing you should do. Oh no. The creation of your

By Mark Jackson

information architecture absolutely should be done in conjunction with your SEO efforts. Your SEO team should research — or at least approve — the content management system and coordinate the design and site development. SEO is the foundation of your efforts. It’s funny how SEO and usabilIn a survey conducted by ity go hand-inForbes Magazine, 48 percent hand. Visitors to of C-suite and executive-level your website like marketers said they consider content. They may search engine optimization the most effective tool for be researching and generating conversions. need to read those Source: 2009 Advertising Effectiveness detailed product Survey, Forbes Magazine descriptions. A Find more facts about ad effectiveness at ClickZ Stats. And, coincidentally, search engines like that content, too. So, the more search enginefriendly you make your site, the more usable the site will become. If your content is good enough, people might want to link to your website. You know what else users like? Blog content. They love finding “unbiased,” helpful, resourceful information. They love reviews. They love forums. Guess what? Search engines love this stuff, too. Ever seen Wikipedia show up in your searches on Google? So next time you’re determining your SEO goals, stop for a moment and think about the bigger picture. SEO is just one part of web success. §

48%

Mark Jackson is president and CEO of Vizion Interactive, a search engine optimization company. He joined the interactive marketing fray in 2000 and has worked at Lycos/Wired Digital and AOL/ Time Warner. A regular speaker at SES and Pubcon conferences, he earned a B.A. in journalism/advertising from The University of Texas at Arlington and spent several years in traditional marketing — radio, television, and print — before venturing into all things web.

SearchEngineStrategies.com § SES

§ FOCUS: conversion strategies

10 Principles of the Tao of Post-Click Marketing

By Scott Brinker earch is the beginning, but the journey — and destination — is after the click. To boost the performance of search campaigns, marketers must pave the path to conversion with rose petals and gold. This is more than landing page optimization; it’s a holistic way of looking at the entire user experience for respondents, from click to conversion. With that objective in mind, here are the 10 principles of the tao of post-click marketing. 1. All clicks are not created equal. The traffic coming to your site and landing pages is not homogenous, but consists of a spectrum of many audience segments. Each segment has its own needs and perspectives. Even if the underlying product or service you sell them is the same, the particular benefit you should emphasize — or the offer you make — may need to be different. Don’t commoditize your respondents. 2. The road from click to conversion must be paved with continuity. If someone searches for a specific keyword phrase, and you tempt them with an ad that speaks to that query, make sure that the corresponding landing page lives up to those expectations. If you’re a data storage company, and someone searches for “data deduplication,” give them a landing page about data deduplication. Don’t just serve them your generic “data storage” landing page. Follow through on the implied promises you make, and make every path flow. 3. Landing pages are both part of your ads and part of your site. Search ads are highly constrained to a few lines of text. Compared to most other kinds of advertising, they provide little bandwidth to make a compelling connection with your audience. Instead, the opportunity to engage people comes immediately after the click. Landing pages are arguably the true first impression of your organization. In some ways, they are an extension of your advertising — where your creativity can really shine. In other ways, because landing pages can be functional and plug respondents into your marketing operations, they’re also part of your site. Balance these two perspectives to your advantage (“less filling, tastes great”). 4. Landing pages can have more than one page. A landing “page” may actually be two or

SES § July 2009 {San Jose Preview}

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

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

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

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

6. Experimentation is the pathway to discovery. Test, test, test. The best way to learn about your market — and get the jump on competition — is to continually experiment with new ideas. Search is great because it is one of the easiest environments in which to set up tests at low cost and low risk. You can run tests on different kinds of offers, different benefits emphasized, different ways of presenting them, or even different audiences. You should have the agility to run at least one meaningful test per week. What you don’t want is to become complacent — if you don’t innovate, a competitor will. 7. Testing without a strategy is like fishing without water. As a counterbalance to the always-be-testing mantra above, it’s important to recognize the difference between a thoughtful experiment versus a random change: Have a strategy. Multivariate testing sometimes encourages throwing things against the wall, but it’s not always clear what the outcome tells you about your market. Good testing will start with a hypothesis, and is often best served with a simple A/B split test.

10. Landing page management is greater than any single landing page. Post-click marketing success isn’t just about optimizing individual landing pages. The bigger picture is to have a structure and a management framework that lets you produce and optimize dozens or hundreds of landing pages, matched to your different ads and different audience segments. These challenges of landing page production at scale — making it efficient and agile — can be overcome with conscious leadership and team coordination. And if your rivals are still doing ad hoc landing pages, one at a time, with days or weeks of delays, a little investment in process management can become a major competitive advantage. § Scott Brinker is the president and chief technology officer of ion interactive, a leading provider of post-click marketing software and services. @chiefmartec

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§ FOCUS: conversion strategies

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

inding ways to improve payper-click conversions is essential in any economic climate, but with less money to go around and greater competition for consumer dollars, extracting more value out of every online visitor is a top priority. While there are many ways to optimize your conversions, one of the most effective yet frequently overlooked methods is to ensure messaging is consistent across your campaign — from user search query to ad copy to landing page. In theory, this sounds relatively simple, but when you consider that user intent often varies with every search, delivermillion ing a consistent message becomes AOL’s Platform-A has the infinitely more greatest measured reach complicated. of all the ad networks (90 Keeping your percent), and served 176.5 million uniques in April 2009. message relevant Source: comScore, 2009 to the user search A See how other ad networks and some query is the best of the Web’s top properties measure up in ClickZ Stats. way to meet this challenge, and if you maintain consistency throughout the conversion process, you will minimize the number of people who click your ad and then abandon your landing page. Let’s look at three easy ways to boost conversions by maintaining consistent messaging throughout your campaign.

176.5

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

Looking for the latest tips on how to increase PPC conversions? Check out SES San Jose in August. To learn more, see pages 15-20, or register online today at

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SES § July 2009 {San Jose Preview}

on a text ad because it seems relevant, and landing on a page that has little to do with what you want. Even if the advertiser can deliver exactly what you are looking for at the best possible price, unless the landing page makes this clear, there is little chance you will stick around. If you want your users to convert, show them they are in the right place by reinforcing them with consistency. If a user searches for “discount antique furniture,” use that same phrase in your landing page headline to keep the user interested. Then, use your body copy to further support the message by explaining the unique benefits of buying from your store, such as special savings or warranties. Alternatively, you could feature a specific 2. Don’t be afraid to get specific: Customdiscount on your landing page, using a ize ad copy based on user queries. headline like “Get 25% Off Discount Let’s say you’re an online shoe retailer Antique Furniture Now” — one that takes with a broad inventory. In some cases you into account the user query but goes a step may want to appeal to the user looking for a further by predicting store that has “everyexactly what the user thing,” but what about Even if the advertiser can wants. the person looking for deliver exactly what you are Achieving consissomething particular? looking for at the best possible tent messaging by For example, if price, unless the landing page building more relevant a user searches for makes this clear, there is little ads and landing pages “Converse by John chance you will stick around. is one of the smartest Varvatos,” you’d do things you can do to well to avoid serving improve your PPC conversions, but a higher them a text ad with a broad headline like conversion rate isn’t the only benefit. “All Kinds of Shoes.” This headline may Bringing more relevance to your PPC describe your inventory and promote one of campaign will also help create a better your store’s main selling points, but it is not user experience, leading to a higher quality relevant to the user search query. score in Google, and a lower cost-per-click. Instead, serve the user an ad that includes Couple a lower cost-per-click with a higher all or part of his or her search query. Use conversion rate, and you are making more “Converse by John Varvatos” as your text profit for less spend — and isn’t that the ad headline to grab the attention of the user ultimate goal? § and reinforce the idea that you have exactly what he needs. Work in a relevant offer, Michael Stone is one of the origicompelling call-to-action, and display URL nal members of Wpromote. In like www.yoursite.com/John-Varvatos, and addition to heading up the sales you will significantly increase your chances team and managing the compaof generating a sale. her search query. One smart way to do this is to create custom display URLs and insert the user search query into the URL. For example, if your website is www. babycircus.com and you are bidding on the keyword “organic diapers,” you would create a display URL that includes the keyword, such as www.babycircus.com/ organic-diapers. Generating custom display URLs is invaluable for creating the right first impression for your users. Taking the extra time to isolate high-performing search queries into single ad groups and create custom display URLs for the corresponding ads will pay off in spades.

3. Give your customers exactly what they want: Design custom landing pages. Most of us would agree there’s nothing worse than performing a search, clicking

ny’s strategic partnerships, Michael is a frequent speaker at industry events and serves on the board of ThinkLA’s AdZoo, an organization of Los Angeles-based advertising executives 32 and under. @mikeystone

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FOCUS: staffing §

Outsourcing Search Marketing

By Julie Batten t’s the age-old question: Should a business do everything in-house, or should it outsource certain activities? Each has advantages, but in economic uncertainty, more companies are looking to outsource non-core functions to save money and improve operating efficiencies. Currently, outsourcing is a common practice for many information technology services. But with marketing, companies seem hesitant to jump on the outsourcing bandwagon. Many maintain that they have in-house marketing departments that should be able to do anything a third-party specialist can do. But what about online marketing, and search marketing in particular? Should companies be outsourcing these activities? I say absolutely, but I may be a little biased. However, there are compelling reasons for doing so. The top reason to consider outsourcing is that effective search marketing requires very specialized skills. Not only does search marketing require a depth of understanding and experience in the field, it’s rarely successfully accomplished on the shoulders of a single person. Actually, it takes a whole team of people

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

If you don’t have all the above roles, it might necessitate some new hires or internal training to get where you need to be. If you do, you may be among the few companies well positioned to do search in-house. Remember that search marketing vendors can help you build a business case for search and champion the project within your organization. Plus, outsourcing search marketing can vastly improve ROI. Seasoned search marketers have extensive experience and industry tools and resources at their disposal, so they can produce better results than a company doing it itself. Although the upfront investment to work with a pro might be hard to swallow, the end results will more than likely pay off. § Julie Batten is the e-marketing manager at Klick Communications. She develops and manages online marketing campaigns for world-class brands. Having written several white papers and articles, instructed online courses, and spoken at various seminars, Julie is well-versed in all things search.

SearchEngineStrategies.com § SES

What is Web 3.0

By Melissa Ortiz uring the dot-com boom, we used web 1.0, the most simplistic form of the online experience. Web 1.0 included basic, static web pages, HTML, irritating online guestbooks, and tons of frameset integration. Web 1.0 introduced e-commerce via online catalogs and online shopping carts. It was easy and fun to shop on a PC — from anywhere at any time. Websites popped up every minute, and people were searching for goods and services as e-comm took the web by storm. As we progressed from the ’90s into the new millennium, web 2.0 emerged. Consumer interaction became the newest hype, revolutionizing the online world into a virtual socialization hub. The dawn of emerging interactive online communities, social networking sites, and blogs became the Studio 54 of our time. Viral campaigning and spreading buzz via e-mail sharing and bookmarking social sites became a monumental aspect of web 2.0’s peak. From a technical standpoint, web 1.0’s simple PHP changed to 2.0’s AJAX, sophisticated Flash, and APIs and RSS feed integration — all of which dynamically fed web content directly to your screen. Millions of users logged onto social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook for the first time. YouTube became the first web 2.0 media-rich-driven site with sharable user-generated content. Video streams were being shared and rated by users for free and grew virally by the second. More social sites like Linked In and blog sites like Twitter exploded with great success. The wikis emerged as a platform for users to make contributions, act as publishers, and have ownership of their own content. In addition, they could blog about themselves, American Idol, or anything they chose. Users felt empowered, and they felt the world was listening. Interaction continued, and the

SES § July 2009 {San Jose Preview}

sharability factor was apparent. If you wanted to read a thread of blogs and jump on the blog bandwagon, RSS feeds allowed you to join the banter. Or better yet, MRSS allowed users to share multimedia-enriched files on online forums and blogs. People finally connected with everyone they knew from their past and present. The Internet became one big party — a frenzy of interactive addiction across the globe. Nearing the end of a robust decade of social evolution and interactive freedom came the commencement of web 3.0. Taking multimedia-enriched platforms to another level, web 3.0 allows users to personalize their browsers and widgets — and control them from anywhere. Web 3.0 offers 4G (fourth generation), which is complete wireless communication. It allows the transmission of multimedia, voice, and data via secure IP addresses. Users can access video chats, mobile TV, Internet radio, and digital video broadcasting. The transformation to web 3.0 encompasses a more intelligent way to formulate structured computing interaction online. The constant strategy of implementing APIs (application programming interface) has exploded, along with the creation of mash-ups and widgets. Facebook, for example, gave users the option to upgrade their profiles to a web 3.0 version, which would allow more mobility and better functionality within the interface. The look and feel of the 2.0 profile was noticeably different, and Facebook forced many users into the change. Flickr’s famous photo-sharing interface allows developers to easily search for images within its own network. This technique sheds new light on how applications can communicate with each other directly and formulate broad searches through simplistic integration. Users can share ideas, knowledge, videos, songs, photos, apps, and more — right

FOCUS: looking ahead §

from their PC or PDA, on various social networking sites. Semantic web is a technology that is used to define web 3.0. Sophistication in data mining to extrapolate viable keywords and clustering them together to formulate collectable data appears to be a smart approach toward building a more “intelligent” worldwide web. Through the combination of web services and semantic markup, applications will speak to each other directly through natural language processing, which can extract meaningful and actionable insight. Data can be used to improve customer relationships and help users identify how different types of content relate to each other. Web Ontology Language (OWL), Resource Description Framework (RDF), and Extensible Markup Language (XML) fall under the W3C standards for web 3.0 technology. Ontology basically defines the nature of a piece of content and identifies a familial relationship. For example, let’s use the metaphor of a family tree: My

grandparents are two generations removed from me, my parents are one generation removed from me, and so on. Yet, we all share the same commonality — we are all related by blood, according to our gene pool and heritage. So if we apply that theory to the web and translate that idea into web ontology, it would be a file of data grouped together based on the relationship within a group of terms. Semantic web exists to aid in a computer’s ability to “read” all web pages. It’s not like computers know what they’re reading as they scan through pages; they just pull specific data that appears on that page during a specific day and time, timestamp the page, and move on to the next one. How does this ultimately benefit you, the user? With web 3.0, you can conduct searches by writing everything you’re looking for simultaneously: “Which winery can I go to so I can stomp on grapes and make my own wine with my bridal party on the North Fork of Long Island?” With advanced semantic web formats and

sources, tagged words — including specific, related subjects — will render the desired search results. Such results will streamline the search process — one that formerly required multiple broad searches that left users clicking through extraneous sites and content. As humans, we can’t talk to our computer, tell it to do certain things, and hope it understands us. But we can push the intelligence factor through fine-tuning the resources we already have. § Melissa Ortiz, a recipient of two master’s degrees, has specialized in interactive digital marketing, search engines strategies, web analytics, and linguistics for the past decade. Her knowledge and implementation in branding major Fortune 500 firms has made her an asset to the online marketing world. Melissa’s expertise focuses on organic, paid search, and the integration of social media to maximize growth and performance. She is actively pursuing her doctorate in integrated marketing and competitive intelligence.

SearchEngineStrategies.com § SES

§ FOCUS: ad management

Google and Microsoft Change Their Ad Interfaces

By Kevin Lee n the wonderful world of software — including web-based software — it’s sometimes difficult to know if one solution is inherently better, or if it just seems better due to familiarity and constant use. Such is the case with search engine advertising management consoles. Many advertising and marketing staffers have voiced a preference for Google’s AdWords interface in the past — so much so that, for better or worse, the other engines have adopted similar interfaces. All web-based management consoles have gotten where they are through a controlled evolution — not because a full feature set was evaluated, or because a user million experience was created to optiBefore GM went bankrupt, it mally address the continued advertising online. In December, it spent $2.48 needs of different million on GMC domestic people using the trucks. consoles. Like Source: TNS Media Intelligence, 2009 A See what other advertisers spent by the sub-optimal media value each month at ClickZ Stats. but ubiquitous QWERTY keyboard, inertia has held back change for the interfaces many marketers use every day. However, Google recently re-engineered its AdWords interface, making some fairly significant changes and making adoption mandatory over the next few months. The change just goes to show how confident Google is that advertisers won’t abandon the platform, even if there will be some challenges for users adapting to the new interface. After all, few search marketers can survive on Yahoo, Microsoft, and secondtier engines alone. So, join everyone else, suck it up, and start using the new Google AdWords interface now, because, just like an old version of Microsoft Word, the time will come when you won’t even remember

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SES § July 2009 {San Jose Preview}

it’s often best to have a lot of highly-tuned why you liked the old version. AdGroups to keep quality score high (the With graphs embedded on pages where idea is to tune the creative to the keywords), only tabular data existed before, Google’s having to drill into every AdGroup sepanew AdWords interface is looking more rately was a real annoyance. similar to the Google Analytics interface. In This is solved with roll-ups. Accordmy informal tests, the new interface seems ing to Google’s documentation of this to render more slowly in Internet Explorer feature: “Clickand Firefox, both when ing the Keywords, graphs were included Start using the new interfaces Networks, or Ads and when they were now. Just like Microsoft Word, tabs will display all not. This can be exasthe time will come when you the keywords, placeperating if you aren’t interested in the data won’t even remember why you ments, or ads at the liked the old version. level you’ve selected. visualization elements This makes it easy to but have a task to do. sort or filter by key metrics across ad groups The new Google interface includes other and focus on specific high- or low-performmajor changes that take some getting used ing items.” to. First, the primary navigation tabs have Microsoft has also been changing its been updated. You may find it easier to get adCenter interface over time, and such to some things and more challenging to get changes often coincide with the addition to others. of new feature sets. The recently released For example, the reports and analytics “Microsoft adCenter Spring 2009 Upgrade” tabs have been combined into a “reporting” comprises a combination of changes driven tab, along with Website Optimizer (which by new features and better organization of isn’t really a reporting tool to me, but hey, existing functionality. Google had to decide where to put it, and According to Microsoft: “You can now the only other option was “tools.”) Ironitake advantage of the newest adCenter cally, if you select that option, your navigafeatures and enjoy more control over targettion changes back to classic (perhaps only if ing, bidding, and ad distribution, and other you’ve never turned on Website Optimizer). elements of campaign management.” Many This is clearly still a work in progress. of the new changes in Microsoft’s adCenOn the positive side, the new navigater are designed to make it easier for those tional changes make it possible to drill marketers who prefer to experiment with into keywords at the campaign level (not content-driven media to add and better just at the AdGroup level). Plus, instead control contextually-targeted media. of the breadcrumb navigation at the top, Taking the time to learn all the new interthere’s a nice left rail sidebar allowing for faces isn’t just a good idea; it’s mandatory. easy jumping between campaigns and into Set aside some time, take your least imporspecific AdGroups. This should be a timetant campaign, and use it as an experiment saver, but the slow load offsets the utility of for testing some of the new features. § this feature, particularly on slower Internet connections. Kevin Lee, Didit co-founder and The required graphs can be customized executive chairman, has been an to include two simultaneous metrics. For acknowledged search engine example, you can select and compare clicks, marketing expert since 1995. His impressions, CTR, average CPC, cost, and “Paid Search Strategies” column average position. Because you’re stuck with for ClickZ is read by thousands; a graph, you might as well customize it to his book, The Eyes Have It: How your preference. to Market in an Age of Divergent At the campaign and AdGroup level, a Consumers, Media Chaos and Advertising Anarchy, has been widely praised; and he is a founding board “settings” tab makes it easier to get to these member of SEMPO. He lives in Manhattan with his settings. However, the campaign-level rollwife and daughter. @kevin_lee_qed ups feature is my favorite, because, while

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glossary advertising network: A service where ads are bought centrally through one company, and displayed on multiple websites that contract with that company for a share of revenue generated by ads served on their site. algorithm: The technology that a search engine uses to deliver results to a query. Search engines utilize several algorithms in tandem to deliver a page of search results or keyword-targeted search ads. anchor text: The clickable text part of a hyperlink. The text usually gives visitors or search engines important information on what the page being linked to is about. click through rate (CTR): The rate (expressed in a percentage) at which users click on an ad. This is calculated by dividing the total number of clicks by the total number of ad impressions. CTR is an important metric for Internet marketers to measure the performance of an ad campaign. content network: A group of websites that agree to show ads on their site, served by an ad network, in exchange for a share of the revenue generated by those ads. Examples include Google AdSense or the Yahoo Publisher Network. contextual advertising: Advertising that is targeted to a web page based on the page’s content, keywords, or category. Ads in most content networks are targeted contextually. cost per action (CPA): A form of advertising where payment is dependent upon an action that a user performs as a result of the ad. The action could be making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or asking for a follow-up call. An advertiser pays a set fee to the publisher based on the number of visitors who take action. Many affiliate programs use the CPA model. cost per click (CPC): Also called pay-per-click (PPC). A performance-based advertising model where the advertiser pays a set fee for every click on an ad. The majority of text ads sold by search engines are billed under the CPC model. cost per thousand (CPM): An ad model that charges advertisers every time an ad is displayed to a user, whether the user clicks on the ad or not. The fee is based on every 1,000 ad impressions (M is the Roman numeral for 1,000). Most display ads, such as banner ads, are sold by CPM. geo-targeting: Delivery of ads specific to the geographic location of the searcher. Geo-targeting allows the advertiser to specify where ads will or won’t be shown based on the searcher’s location, enabling more localized and personalized results. Googlebot: Google uses several user-agents to crawl and index content in the Google.com search engine. Googlebot describes all Google spiders. All Google bots begin with “Googlebot”;

SES § July 2009 {San Jose Preview}

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

for example, Googlebot-Mobile: crawls pages for Google’s mobile index; Googlebot-Image: crawls pages for Google’s image index. inbound link: An inbound link is a hyperlink to a particular web page from an outside site, bringing traffic to that web page. Inbound links are an important element that most search engine algorithms use to measure the popularity of a web page. invisible web: A term that refers to the vast amount of information on the web that isn’t indexed by search engines. Coined in 1994 by Dr. Jill Ellsworth. keyword: A word or phrase entered into a search engine in an effort to get the search engine to return matching and relevant results. Many websites offer advertising targeted by keywords, so an ad will only show when a specific keyword is entered. link bait: Editorial content, often sensational in nature, posted on a web page and submitted to social media sites in hopes of building inbound links from other sites. Or, as Matt Cutts of Google says, “something interesting enough to catch people’s attention.” link building: The process of getting quality websites to link to your websites, in order to improve search engine rankings. Link building techniques can include buying links, reciprocal linking, or entering barter arrangements. meta tags: Information placed in the HTML header of a web page, providing information that is not visible to browsers, but can be used in varying degrees by search engines to index a page. Common meta tags used in search engine marketing are title, description, and keyword tags. pay per click (PPC): See cost per click (CPC). quality score: A score assigned by search engines that is calculated by measuring an ad’s clickthrough rate, analyzing the relevance of the landing page, and considering other factors used to determine the quality of a site and reward those of higher quality with top placement and lower bid requirements. Some factors that make up a quality score are historical keyword performance, the quality of an ad’s landing page, and other undisclosed attributes. All of the major search engines now use some form of quality score in their search ad algorithm. return on investment (ROI): The amount of money an advertiser earns from their ads compared to the amount of money the advertiser spends on their ads. search advertising: Also called paid search. An advertiser bids for the chance to have their ad display when a user searches for a given keyword. These are usually text ads, which are displayed

above or to the right of the algorithmic (organic) search results. Most search ads are sold by the PPC model, where the advertiser pays only when the user clicks on the ad or text link. search engine marketing (SEM): The process of building and marketing a site with the goal of improving its position in search engine results. SEM includes both search engine optimization (SEO) and search advertising, or paid search. search engine optimization (SEO): The process of making a site and its content highly relevant for both search engines and searchers. SEO includes technical tasks to make it easier for search engines to find and index a site for appropriate keywords, as well as marketing-focused tasks to make a site more appealing to users. Successful search marketing helps a site gain top positioning for relevant words and phrases. search engine results pages (SERPs): The page searchers see after they’ve entered their query into the search box. This page lists several web pages related to the searcher’s query, sorted by relevance. Increasingly, search engines are returning blended search results, which include images, videos, and results from specialty databases on their SERPs. social media: A category of sites based on user participation and user-generated content. They include social networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook, social bookmarking sites like Del. icio.us, social news sites like Digg or Reddit, and other sites that are centered on user interaction. spider: A search engine spider is a program that crawls the web, visiting web pages to collect information to add to or update a search engine’s index. The major search engines on the web all have such a program, which is also known as a “crawler” or a “bot.” title tag: An HTML meta tag with text describing a specific web page. The title tag should contain strategic keywords for the page, since many search engines pay special attention to the title text when indexing pages. The title tag should also make sense to humans, since it is usually the text link to the page displayed in search engine results. universal search: Also known as blended, or federated search results, universal search pulls data from multiple databases to display on the same page. Results can include images, videos, and results from specialty databases like maps and local information, product information, or news stories. web 2.0: A term that refers to a supposed second generation of Internet-based services. These usually include tools that let people collaborate and share information online, such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies.

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