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Local Marketing Expo Provides Much Needed SMB Education

cgseo — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:24:27 +0000

I have written quite a bit both here and on my personal internet marketing blog , Frank Thinking About Internet Marketing, about the plight of the SMB with regard to Internet marketing. It’s the one thing that most SMB’s know about and desire but when it comes to doing it there are plenty of obstacles. The obvious obstacle is money but the most critical is the SMB’s education in marketing options especially those relating to online opportunities. The SMB owner and / or marketer often has limited knowledge about things such as SEO, paid search and social media but also don’t know where to turn for advice that isn’t attached to someone trying to sell them something on the spot. That’s why the event called the Local Marketing Expo in Virginia Beach, VA on September 29th at the beautiful Virginia Beach Convention Center is both unique and very much needed. For full disclosure, I will be a speaker at the event on a panel discussing the importance of monitoring social media and the available options for doing it effectively. Conference Coordinator Nicole Newsome tells us Our vision was bringing something great to the local SMB marketing community. The organizations locally have been fantastic. The Hampton Roads American Marketing Association has helped us tremendously. We are seeing the power of the local community to drive local business and the amount of interest that these SMB’s have in making the most of their marketing dollars both online and offline. Considering the economy this has been a spectacular response. In fact, we could possibly hit 1,000 attendees! There will be four keynotes with Sam Feldman of Google’s National Agency Team heading the bill. Other main speakers include Kurt Noer, CEO & Founder, Customer Magnetism, Sharon Frazier, VP of Sales, Cox Media and Maurice Jones, President/Publisher, The Virginian-Pilot. The expo is an ambitious undertaking in that it is itself a ‘local’ event drawing business owners from Virginia, North Carolina and as far north as the Washington, DC region. The idea behind the all day event is to give the SMB access to the same information that the big players practically take for granted by attending shows like SES and SMX. Most SMB’s can’t make the investment to take advantage of these shows so they never truly get to understand some of the most critical marketing opportunities that can be theirs for the taking. The event is a full day of speakers and presentations that covers areas like Social Media 101 Google Adwords Search Engine Optimization E-mail marketing Customer Service Tracking Your Marketing Efforts Register today especially if you are within driving range of this event. It will be worth the effort. Marketing Pilgrim readers who would like to attend can use the code PILGRIM to receive a discount of $40 off the already reasonable price of $129 for the day ($249 at the door with no discount offered at the door). If you are an SMB who is looking for the opportunity to expand your Internet marketing knowledge this is a show designed to meet your needs. As local and mobile continue to increase in importance every day I suspect this won’t be the last show of its kind. See you in Virginia Beach!

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Local Marketing Expo Provides Much Needed SMB Education

Google Legal Update: Who Painted That Target On Our Back?

cgseo — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:35:51 +0000

What better way to get back from your Labor Day weekend break than to hear about more Google legal concerns. This time there is a mix of the old and the new as an old nemesis shows up in Texas while the online travel industry has some questions about Google proposed purchase of ITA Software. By the way, Google is hiring law related talent so this is a “growth” area for the search giant . First we are revisited by the group headed by the vertical search engine, Foundem. You remember these guys, right ? They were given editorial space in the New York Times to rant about the unfairness of Google’s algorithm . Well, if you can’t succeed in Europe and your pleas go unheard in the NY Times the next obvious stop is Texas. Yup, Texas. Techdirt tells us Late Friday, the news broke that Texas’ AG was “investigating” Google for antitrust violations, using the trio of companies that have been mentioned for a while now — Foundem, MyTriggers and TradeComet — who have all been making a stink about how Google is somehow violating antitrust laws because those three sites don’t like their rankings in Google. All three claim that they’re competitors to Google, and Google is somehow trying to hold them down. This is, frankly, ridiculous. As has been explained over and over again, rankings are an opinion, protected by free speech rights. And, furthermore, if Google was really trying to keep competitors down, wouldn’t it actually focus on players that actually matter in the space? Couldn’t have said it better myself so I won’t. Why can’t these guys just go away? Where will this tired act show up next time? Singapore? Tasmania? One of the former USSR “ikstans”? The second legal inquiry is being started as Google’s purchase of ITA Software is making the online travel space antsy thus inviting regulators to have a closer “look-see”. The Wall Street Journal reports The Justice Department is trying to determine whether Google Inc. would gain too much sway over the online travel industry by acquiring ITA Software Inc., which powers the Web’s most popular airline-ticket search and booking sites, said people familiar with the department’s review. The merger investigation is at an early stage, but according to people familiar with the situation, Justice antitrust authorities are focusing on two potential areas of concern: whether rivals would continue to have access to ITA’s data and whether Google would unfairly steer Web searchers to its own travel services. Whether this inquiry has any merit is up for debate but since it’s so early let’s save the debate for another time. I am not a lawyer, I have never played one on TV and I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night so I have no interest in getting into the details here. In fact, I am of the belief that unless there is really some smoke then giving companies like Foundem any more free publicity isn’t worth the time or effort. If you like this kind of stuff join the Google legal team. It looks like there will be plenty of job security there.

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Google Legal Update: Who Painted That Target On Our Back?

Study: 83% of ALL Holiday Shoppers Influenced by Reviews

cgseo — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:41:15 +0000

ChannelAdvisors’ 2010 Consumer Shopping Habits Survey is out just in time for the holiday season. The free report provides valuable insights for anyone in the ecommerce, B2C space. So, what jumped out at me? Well, it wasn’t so much that 59% of those surveyed start their gift search at a search engine –with 28% heading straight to a marketplace such as eBay or Amazon–but what did intrigue me were the starts on just how inconsequential brand recognition is. A surprising 67% said they would purchase an identical product from an unknown website if the retailer offered a better value . Better value? What do they mean by that? Well, it appears low pricing and free shipping trump all: Also of significance? Of the 92% of consumers that say they read product reviews, only 3% say they weren’t swayed by such reviews. That means a staggering 83% of ALL consumers are influenced by online reviews . So, want to improve your sales this holiday season? If you’re a retailer, make sure you have product reviews, low pricing, and free shipping. If you’re a trying to improve the sales of your products on a merchant’s web site, you’d better make sure you’re receiving positive reviews!

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Study: 83% of ALL Holiday Shoppers Influenced by Reviews

China Wants to Check In As Well

cgseo — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:48:56 +0000

Once again we try to take a look at how the rest of the world is doing while Facebook’s announcement of its Places services gets worked and reworked by every media type on the planet. Over at Forbes’ Beijing Dispatch they are taking a look at what might be happening in the geo-location game in China. Don’t expect any of the names you are familiar with to be making any inroads into this huge market. If history is any barometer there will be plenty of foursquare and Groupon knock-offs vying for the title of the Chinese king of the location craze. The originators? Not so much. As Facebook slowly sashays its way up to Foursquare’s check-in counter, let us not forget the original masters of copying Internet phenoms and making fortunes off of them. China has a proud history of copycat success stories, and in the coming years a few companies are going to profit handsomely from cloning Foursquare, Gowalla and Groupon: The question is, will it be a cute little startup or a behemoth Chinese platform coming later to the game as Facebook is doing? That ‘proud history’ includes the likes of search engine Baidu and various YouTube knockoffs as well. China certainly takes the phrase “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’ to new heights and new dollar amounts,doesn’t it? Apparently the Chinese competition is fast and furious because there is a lot of money at stake. After all, there are a lot of Chinese people who are always somewhere, right? Right now the competition is on to be known as the Foursquare of China, or the Groupon of China, or both mashed up in one. There are many, many competitors for the location-based check-in-at-your-Starbucks prize and the group-buying ridiculous-phenomenon-with-sky-high-valuation prize. There are “dozens of Foursquare clones and literally hundreds of group purchasing sites,” report the folks at Startups Watch, who also produced this informative blog post on Groupon clones earlier this summer. How this impacts the US market is really not even a story because it won’t. What will happen , however, is that one of these copycats will claim the top of the hill in China and will, in effect, close the market to the outside. If you are an analyst over at Facebook or some other geo-location player I would suspect it would be smart to target other areas before trying to go after China, which is more about politics than business in most cases. Foursquare already has learned that it can be a tough go in China It is worth noting that Foursquare itself is still blocked in China, ever since a lot of people tried to “check in” at Tiananmen Square on a particularly sensitive date in June. We can be sure the Foursquare and Groupon wannabes of China won’t be allowing such a thing. So while the Internet is truly a global phenomenon it doesn’t mean that all markets are created equal. In fact, it is starting to show just how unequal most of the world is and will likely remain.

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China Wants to Check In As Well

Latest Adjusted Search Share Results Have Google Down Just a Bit

cgseo — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:15:41 +0000

We all play the monthly search share game but it has become a bit more complicated as of late. We now have to pay attention to whose numbers are being considered and what they are using to measure this important metric. It used to be that we would take comScore at its word (which is admittedly a dangerous play) but other players like Chitika have raised the bar by at least playing in the same ballpark as comScore. Now comScore is adjusting its measurement techniques. Both Chitika and comScore’s approaches are covered with the usual thoroughness that Danny Sullivan provides over at Search Engine Land. I recommend that you read both articles to get the big picture on the ‘new’ landscape of search share measurement. As for the numbers for July based on the adjustments to comScores ‘core search’ analysis The Business Insider reports According to the data, total US explicit core search volume increased 15.1% Y/Y in July, an acceleration from 10.8% growth in June. The July level was also above 2Q’s 7% growth. Google domestic explicit core search market share was 65.8% in July, down slightly from 66.2% in June. Google domestic explicit core search volume growth of 16.9% Y/Y in July was an acceleration from June’s 12.7% growth and 2Q’s 9.1% growth. Yahoo! domestic explicit core search market share increased to 17.1% in July from 16.7% in June. Yahoo! July explicit core search volume increased 1.8% Y/Y, an improvement from June’s 5.5% decline and 2Q’s 10.5% decline. Microsoft sites’ domestic explicit core search market share stayed flat at 11.0% in July. Microsoft sites grew July explicit core search volume by 43.8% Y/Y vs. 46.6% growth in June and 42.2% growth in 2Q. Ask Network domestic explicit core search market share stayed flat at 3.8% in July. Ask grew July explicit core search volume by 9.7% Y/Y, up from 5.7% growth in June and 3.9% growth in 2Q. AOL July domestic explicit core search market share dropped slightly to 2.3% from 2.4% in June. AOL July explicit core search volume declined by 13.8% Y/Y vs a 16.3% decline in June and a 19.9% decline in 2Q. So what’s the takeaway here? It appears as if Google is stuck. Maybe there is no more room at the top and the old axiom of ‘what goes up must come down’ is starting to take hold here. Maybe it’s time for Google to advertise and stop being so smug about its dominance in the space. Maybe it’s just the way it is and Google is trying to hedge its bets by branching out into other areas. All of these are possible but the reality is that Google’s lead in search share is still dominant even if they have slipped a bit. Everyone will want to bury the Goog but unless there is truly a better mousetrap out there that is unlikely in the foreseeable future. So what is your take? Does any competitor REALLY stand a chance to knock Google off its pedestal? Even if Google slipped even lower in market share in the US would there be cause for alarm or is it just part of the process? Do you see a competitor of any real worth on the horizon?

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Latest Adjusted Search Share Results Have Google Down Just a Bit

Google’s Firefox Partnership Nets It 9% of All Web Searches!

cgseo — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:41:45 +0000

Wow, if you thought Google was dominant in search, you need to redefine your idea of dominant. It is impressive enough that Google controls around 80% of the search marketing in the US, but according to Chitika , that doesn’t include the search share it gets from being the default search engine in Firefox. That share alone is estimated at 9.18%, which is larger than the general market share of Yahoo or Bing! The Mozilla Foundation earns most of its revenue from its partnership deal with Google. Now we know why the search giant is willing to hand over a eight figure sum each year. If I were Microsoft, I’d offer Mozilla a deal they couldn’t refuse. After all, isn’t, say, $500M a year worth it to secure an instant 9% market share? Join the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook Community

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Google’s Firefox Partnership Nets It 9% of All Web Searches!

Ask Asks If the Human Element Will Help Its Search Business

cgseo — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:36:43 +0000

Ask has always been the red-headed stepchild of the search industry. It’s always lurking in the shadows as the #4 search engine and usually gets a mention in search share only if there was significant up or down movement. Accounting has the Big 4 but search only has the Big 3 which is soon to be the Big 2 ½ or something once bing and Yahoo fully consummate their relationship. Ask is usually not included in those talks but is making changes to differentiate itself and hopefully make more of a splash in that area. The key to that hope: good ol’ fashioned human beings! The Ask blog reports Today we’ve officially launched the public beta for the new Ask.com, which combines our proprietary answers technology (specifically tailored to extract questions and answers from the Web) with the human insight of the thriving Ask.com community drawn from our 87 million monthly uniques. Now available on an invite-only basis (you can request your invite here), the capability to pose questions to real people is now possible for those complex, subjective and/or time-sensitive queries that, no matter how advanced, computers simply can’t address. That means that Ask.com is now uniquely able to offer the most comprehensive and convenient approach to getting answers, combining pages and people to help users find the answers to all questions – even questions for which no answer is published online. In the search world there may just be a place for this kind of service if it can catch on with people who are ‘blue text link trained’ like myself. In this age of social media and trusting sources that reach far beyond our truly trusted circle of friends (be that a good or bad thing, it still is) there may be more of an acceptance of this approach. Mashable’s Jennifer Van Grove sums up the improvements for you The beta offering is a product of four new features: a completely overhauled look with a focus on highlighting trending questions from the community, semantic search with answers displayed on the page, a large Q&A database and a user community element that targets members for answering questions based on their areas of expertise. The latter somewhat mirrors Aardvark’s formula for finding answers to user questions, and is initiated when users click the “Ask the Community” button on the right-hand side of the results page. Even if this Q & A approach seems to be somewhat antiquated it could have some legs if for no other reason than it looks different. Once again, though, Ask needs to drive people to the site and in the past their approach has been mass advertising pushes that come on real strong then disappear. There has been very little attempt to keep the Ask brand in the mind of the searcher in a way to help them possibly convert from Google or somewhere else to the new Ask. I have always hoped that Ask would put together something that was worthy of challenging bing and Yahoo! to at least push them a bit. Whether this approach is the answer certainly is a big TBD. If it’s not the answer then the next question has to be, is there a place for Ask at the search table or is it time to move on and look for someone else to challenge the Big 3 (or 2 1/8 or whatever it’s going to be)? Your thoughts?

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Ask Asks If the Human Element Will Help Its Search Business

Cup of Joe: Kevin Spacey & Google Play By Their Own Set Of Rules

cgseo — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 12:38:06 +0000

A few days ago Google launched a new “image search” user interface to the public. If you haven’t tried it yet you should go ahead and give it whirl–after reading this post. My first impression was wow! I really like how the images are positioned in a way that maximizes all available screen real estate. As I continued to search for images and test out the new UI, I had this feeling of deja vu. Something didn’t seem right with this search feature. For some reason it felt like I had used this before. And, then it dawned on me! Certain aspects of Google’s new image search resemble Bing’s image search. The most notable similarity is the absence of pagination navigation at the bottom. This feature change alone on a search engine can stick out like a sore thumb and create a remarkable difference in other similar image search engines like Yahoo for example. Many say that imitation is the highest form of flattery. But in business, there’s sometimes is a fine line between flattery and insult. And when the corporation at hand can drop millions in legal fees on a daily basis, the insult can have a devastating impact. But if you are Google that doesn’t matter. Why doesn’t it matter if Google blatantly copies the features of its competitors? It doesn’t matter because Google dominates a majority of the market. Which means that the vast majority of the folks running image searches have never even tried Bing’s innovative features. Likewise it doesn’t matter if Kevin Spacey imitates well know actors because let’s face it, it’s an honor to be imitated by Kevin Spacey! Having a strong brand isn’t just about making more money or building trust. Often times it’s also about playing by a different set of rules, and sometimes creating your own. So as you grow your business remember that even though there are other ways to create revenue streams, nothing can replace the power of strong brand.

Up to 25% of Yahoo Search is Now bing-ified

cgseo — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 12:53:32 +0000

Last week Yahoo sent a letter to their search advertisers about a rather large window for when they can anticipate the integration of bing . In a post yesterday on the Yahoo blog they went a little further and said that they were currently testing the results. Here is what they said We’ve started testing organic (also referred to as algorithmic) and paid search listings from Microsoft for up to 25 percent of Yahoo! Search traffic in the U.S. The primary change for these tests is that the listings are coming from Microsoft. However, the overall page should look the same as the Yahoo! Search you’re used to – with rich content and unique tools and features from Yahoo!. If you happen to fall into our tests, you might also notice some differences in how we’re displaying select search results due to a variety of product configurations we are testing. Here is the screenshot of a page and the ‘changes’ that have occurred. To the untrained eye (and even the trained one) noticing this difference is well, next to impossible unless you had memorized the result set returned by Yahoo. I doubt that happens much. Since 25% isn’t a real large number your chances of seeing this out in the wild is not so strong. Also, unless you are an advertiser or you are a previously high ranked organic site in the Yahoo results this ‘change’ won’t even be noticed. Interestingly enough, this entire change over from Yahoo to bing search is quite disruptive to the industry side of the coin while probably going completely unnoticed by the vast majority of Yahoo search users. So now that we are on the cusp of this ‘historic moment’ how do you really view this play? Will bing being the back end of Yahoo search make a difference for those who use Yahoo as a search engine? Will regular users notice and are they even aware that this tectonic shift has happened? From the little guys’ point of view this is a non-event as long as the search function in Yahoo is not interrupted at great length. This shift effects 13 or so out of a hundred searchers according to the latest search shares . The real impact is to the advertisers and until they squeal this is going to be a non-issue in my book.

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Up to 25% of Yahoo Search is Now bing-ified

foursquare Follows Twitter’s Footsteps with Search Engine Talks

cgseo — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:22:45 +0000

When Twitter finally got to the point where it realized that there needed to be a next step (whether they felt ready or not they were told they were ready by everyone and their brother) they turned to deals with the search engines. It’s a rite of passage for businesses t reach the level where they can even be thought of as a viable source of information that the engines would actually pay to have. It appears as if foursquare is about there already. The Telegraph has the scoop Speaking exclusively to The Telegraph, Dennis Crowley, Foursquare’s co-founder, said that his company was in talks with “everyone” in the search space – including all three major players: Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft about a data partnership. “Our data generates hugely interesting trends which would enrich search,” Crowley said. We can anonymise data and use it to show venues which are trending at that moment. Twitter helped the world and the search engines know what people are talking about. Foursquare would allow people to search for the types of place people are going to – and where is trending – not what.” Whether or not you are buying into the ‘check-in’ craze this is important to marketers since foursquare is showing signs of taking off. It recently reached the 2 million account plateau just three months after it had hit the 1 million mark. We have seen this kind of hockey stick adoption rate in the past so it is best for foursquare to strike while the iron is hot. Of course, any deals with the engines are gambles because of the fear that the location based game is still very wide open and plans by social giants like Facebook and Google themselves could put a dent in the idea that foursquare could dominate the space. Right now its biggest threat is Gowalla but this space is so new and is developing so rapidly that there could be an unknown lurking in the bushes that could come in and do something different. In fact, one of the concerns about the whole location based craze right now is just what can be done AFTER someone checks in and gets excited about being the mayor of a place that they are visiting. Foursquare is making strides in this area which will likely determine just how far they can go in the future. For now though it’s all good as Crowley says about his current competition “We are more social than Gowalla and ultimately have different visions moving forward. They are excited about different things.” So this will be worth keeping an eye on as more and more elements of search move away from the traditional blue text link. Real estate on the first page of SERP’s (search engine results pages) for anything with a location element are already crowded with maps and seven packs and more. It sure will keep the SEO community on its toes as it tries to keep pace with the change and figure out just what a search result is going to look like in certain circumstances in the very near future. Where are you on the geo-location craze? Are you active? Passive? Waiting to see what happens? Let us know where you are at .

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foursquare Follows Twitter’s Footsteps with Search Engine Talks