LocalLead.com
The Kelsey Group Blog: "There are maybe eight firms out there enabling Yellow Pages, Web hosts, verticals and newspapers to sell simplified search distribution to local businesses. One firm, which is doing well under the radar, is Kevin Dufficy's LocalLead.com. Dufficy was in on all this early but hasn't taken any VC money (but is now looking for angels), hasn't made any high-profile announcements and has kept things quiet as he plugs along � tortoise style � selling directly to local businesses. "
Only the home page and quick tour are accessible today....
Local Lead: Search Engine Marketing for Small & Local Businesses
Local Search Disappoints
Don't throw away the yellow pages phone book just yet...a new research report from Kelsey Group and Constat rates user satisfaction for various media sources which provide local shopping information. Compared tp 2005 local search neither gained nor lost with 39% of those surveyed rating them higly, still second after national newspapers - local rags came joint bottom:
The Kelsey Group - About Us - Press Releases: "New Research by The Kelsey Group and ConStat Indicates 70% of U.S. Households Now Use the Internet When Shopping Locally for Products and Services
Findings also suggest the Internet is poised to surpass newspapers as a local shopping information resource. " "Local search is making strides but it's still not satisfying the majority of consumers, and neither are other sources of local information, whether they're on- or off-line...
Of all of the sources for local shopping information,
newspapers satisfied the most respondents (45 percent)
Internet search engines came in second, with 39 percent of respondents rating them highly
Online shopping sites (16 percent)
Internet Yellow Pages (15 percent) provided significantly lower satisfaction
Worst were local newspapers' Web sites (11 percent) and online message boards (5 percent).
Neal Polachek, SVP of research and consulting at the Kelsey Group states:
"that consumers' exposure to new sources for local information, such as local search from Yahoo! and Google; social sites like Judy's Book and Insider Pages; and directory-assistance replacements like 1-800-FREE411, might be frustrating consumers as much as helping them.
"Sometimes fewer options are easier," he said, noting that each category of player has strengths and weaknesses, but no one service meets all of consumers' needs. "I think we're going though that process in trying to understand where they're going to find the information they need, when they need it, and I don't think it's completely figured out yet."
That's part of the reason, Polachek reckons, that consumers haven't tossed out their print Yellow Pages books yet."
Related research;The Kelsey Group TKR - Document Display: "Global Yellow Pages, Local Search and Classifieds Forecast, 2005-2010
Charles Laughlin, Neal Polachek , 2/24/2006 summary of the key findings from this White paper
The definition of local search has changed with this years forecast. Local search now comprises Internet Yellow Pages, local commercial search and wireless directories."
Duplicate content penalty - how to avoid being banned
Two observations from a current project:
On multiple domains 301 redirects are a must - anything else would most likely trigger the spam detectors.
You don't want new links pointing to the redirected ones as this would appear most unnatural and possibly flag them as doorway spam. Having multiple domains parked and pointing to your main site using 301's is the only way to go.
A roundtable with Matt Cutts states "The same content should never be accessible from different URL’s…ever!
More broadly "Presenters at the
SES 2006 New York session, Duplicate Content Issues, discussed the dangers of duplicate content. It comes in many forms, like multiple domains for the same homepage content; multiple links to several domains for one site; and "doorway" pages, according to Anne Kennedy, managing partner at Beyond Ink. "
The
same conference review provides this list:
Jake Baillie, TrueLocal's president, described the top six duplicate content mistakes:
Circular navigation - having different paths through a site should be avoided. Publishers should define a consistent way of addressing page content no matter what navigation path a user takes through a site.
Printer friendly pages - if these are html pages, robots.txt should be used to block search engines from indexing them.
Inconsistent linking - calling directory pages in an inconsistent manner, like /directory and /directory/, should be avoided.
Product-only pages - it is not good for a site to have product pages and SKU pages; they should be consolidated if possible.
Transparent serving domains - use 301 redirection instead of DNS aliasing to get users to a canonical site from multiple domains.
Bad cloaking - Don't use cloaking scripts you didn't write. Make sure your cloaking script is returning separate content for each URL being cloaked."
All sound advise...
Search Engine Optimization Consulting - Jill Whalen, SEO Expert
Jill Whalen offers personalised website audits for $5000
Search Engine Optimization Consulting - Jill Whalen, SEO Expert: "custom-written report that will address the issues unique to your Website:
Custom Search Engine Optimization Audit and Review
Complete SEO Copywriting Analysis
Keyword Research
Current Search Engine Rankings
Full Website Usability Analysis
Please note that our report provide specific advice obtained through Jill and her team's extensive knowledge of SEO; however, we are not experts at figuring out why your site might be banned or penalized. If that is what you're looking for, you probably should seek out a different SEO consulting company.
The fee for this in-depth site audit starts at $5000"
Zeal...to close?
Say Goodnight Zeal...: "After long being known as the 'free' way into the once-popular Looksmart directory, Zeal will be closing its doors next Tues" various rumours around this news, that it maybe a hoax or that they are working on Furl, a social bookmarking site....
10 Creative Traffic Building Ideas
10 Creative Traffic Building Ideas: "In the end, it's not all about traffic, it's about giving the user something they think is of value. You could drive thousands of new people to your site, but if you don't give them a reason to stay, was it really worth it? "
Search Marketing: What's the Problem?
Googles share of the online search marketing market continues to rise and rise but a new report predicts that problems surrounding trust and click fraud in particular may curb growth prospects.
Search Marketing: What's the Problem?: "The media spotlight that shines so brightly on Google may be blinding many observers to problems that lie ahead for search marketing."
The Emarketer report
Search Marketing: Players and Problems: "Key questions the 'Search Marketing: Players and Problems' report answers:
Why is Google so dominant among search engines (and will that continue)?
Are more individuals searching online (and how can marketers reach them)?
How should users' shopping behaviors affect search marketers?
Is click fraud as big a problem as some reports make it out to be?
When is privacy a legitimate concern for search engines and marketers?"
Major Marketers Avoid MySpace
Myspace shunned by big biz as too dodgy...
MediaPost Publications - Major Marketers Avoid MySpace - 03/21/2006: "SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE MYSPACE HAS grown to 60 million members, adding 8 million to million new members in the last few months alone, and now accounts for around 12.5 percent of all online display ads.
But major brand marketers continue to shun the site."
They do concede that "MySpace held some promise for advertisers, especially corporate-created pages. "There are areas where the content is generated by MySpace, and is totally sanitized and quite safe"
This speaks volumes about the mindset of big biz and tells us where any anarcho-punk edgy buzz worthy set up has the chance to find their niche and mate with that uncontrollable public so feared by the sanitizers.
Nasty Little SEO Scam
New SEO Scam; SEOs Warning Google Will Ban Site: "New SEO Scam; SEOs Warning Google Will Ban Site"
Rusty brick warns website owners about a particularly nasty sales technique which hopes to scare you into using their SEO services by saying your site is going to be banned fronm Google unless you pay them to put it right for you. If you decline their offer you may get an email stating ""I make sure to report you to Google for link farming. I'm sorry. Your website will be banned and you will not be able to be found on Google not even with your company name."
Read the full story & sales patter at
Cold Callin' Slick Talkin' -> High Rankings� Search Engine Optimization Forum the latest post states how such techniques should be dealt with "This isn't an SEO company. It's Internet fraud, possibly criminal. You can find the site by Googling some of the long text phrases that Leann has provided. They should be reported to the FTC"
search google with "PRICE QUOTE & Free Professional Website Analysis" to find the site
Matt Cutts gets stuck into "SEO" software
Researching the sandbox for an upcoming site launch and although this is not directly relevent it makes amusing reading, Matt certainly cuts through the crap but does he sometimes protest too loudly?
Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO � $79 SEO software?
MediaPost Publications - When Time Is On Your Side: The Power of SEO - 03/17/2006
Excellent article outlining an ethical organic search engine optimisation campaign. It states that "SEO strategies generally include the enhancement of a site's architecture, copy, and structure to ensure that search engine spiders are more likely to see and select your site's pages for search requests."
MediaPost Publications - When Time Is On Your Side: The Power of SEO - 03/17/2006: "ALTHOUGH PAID INCLUSION PROGRAMS AND paid search campaigns provide the most immediate marketing results, SEO strategies generally provide the most cost-efficient and the most consistent traffic. So, when you have only a modest marketing budget to work with, start by optimizing your site through smart SEO strategies."
"SEO Strategies: A successful SEO project usually requires changing site infrastructure, content, and linking strategies. Some of the strategies we implemented to optimize the visibility of our websites across all major search engines included:
Keyword research: we learned what keywords are most often used to access our sites and what content people most often search for within the framework of our sites.
Tag Authoring: we created a process the ensure that the most appropriate keywords and phrases were included in all meta tags, alt tags and title tags.
Content EnhancementThe results?"We started seeing small results immediately and, after a year of focused efforts, we are now reaping larger rewards
SEO Results: In 2005, our monthly average search traffic from the top five search engines on all sites increased by 27 percent from our benchmark measure. And, combined across all properties, search engine rankings improved 43 percent for the targeted keywords. And, perhaps most importantly, first-page rankings increased 48 percent."
Copywriting Makeover: The Value of Being Crystal Clear: Part 2 of 2
Copywriting Makeover: The Value of Being Crystal Clear: Part 2 of 2 Results from home page rewrite for visitors and search engine traffic....
"52% increase in unique visitors to the site
22% increase in overall sign-ups
86% increase in paid subscribers
Steady increase in phone traffic "
SEOcial Networking � Search Marketing and Social Networks
SEOcial Networking Search Marketing and Social Networks: "Ever since Friendster established itself as the dominant �circle of friends� networking tool in 2003, younger Internet users have trended towards accessing the Internet primarily as a social space, as opposed to a purely informative space. This trend has been gaining momentum for a while but in the past year, a bulk of new users has accelerated adoption of the medium to the point where the most popular network,
MySpace sees more traffic in a day than Google does.
Something about a statement that ends with, �� more traffic in a day than Google does.� makes a search marketer�s eyebrows rise...."The classic way of viewing search engine marketing has users accessing the Internet using a number of unique applications they are comfortable with. Some use IE, some use Firefox. Some use Google while others use Yahoo. This group primarily accesses information by seeking it out from scratch. They search, and, if we have done our jobs properly, they find what we want them to. They connect, our clients do some business and we hope that visitor keeps coming back. The web, for many of its users is an intricate and never ending series of one-way streets. You can always get there; find what you need and leave, returning only when necessary.
Another way of viewing the web has users accessing the net through a social portal offering search and recommendation options. People who like each other (in the offline world) tend to like or do the same things. They tend to have similar interests that somehow draw them together. Now that they know each other, they begin to inform each other...
As a search marketing application, the basic concept of social networking is simple. There are multiple points of connections between almost anyone on Earth. Working from that basic truism, virtually anything imaginable is possible to find, share, enjoy, and track, providing a cross-reference can be found. With social network applications, user choices and preferences are saved, stored, shared and used to build rapidly growing chains of endorsements.
As those cross-references are established, the profile of a person, company or service provider, along with its traditional website increases in recognition and reputation. Think about how links affect rankings at Google but on a different, more chaotic sort of scale...Even as a new and highly dynamic wave of web users is introducing Wiki communties, Wikipedia, MySpace and other participation driven applications, organic search results as supplied by Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask and the rest will continue to be integrated into those applications. At the same time, user-popularity is becoming an important factor in the ranking algorithms of the major search engines. Google for example, uses bookmarks, personal references and repeat visits as a gauge of relevance and importance.
With the exception of our experimentation and research, StepForth’s services are primarily targeted towards the web as a one-way street. While we preach the gospel of blogging and RSS, and our SEO techniques, consultation and recommendations have been moving rapidly to encompass usability and accessibility principles, the opportunity and necessity to embrace social networking on behalf of our clients has not previously arisen.
Then again, we had not previously read statements that ended with, “… more traffic in a day than Google does.”
When and Why You Should Secure Multiple Domains
Topical article re domain names....
When and Why You Should Secure Multiple Domains: "When and Why You Should Secure Multiple Domains
By Stoney deGeyter..
There are many different reasons for purchasing multiple domain names, and each reason has its own set of benefits and uses. Buying multiple domain names is a great strategy that can be used to capture additional type-in traffic, secure other branding avenues you may wish to pursue, or simply to prevent your competitors from securing them...
Hyphenated Versions
I mentioned above that you should not purchase a hyphenated URL for your main site. For marketing purposes, however, there are sometimes legitimate reasons to do so. My business owns PolePositionMarketing.com and Pole-Position-Marketing.com. I purchased the hyphenated version simply to prevent a competitor from securing it and stealing my branding. I also have the option of using the hyphenated versions for other marketing efforts, but I don't recommend doing so unless you are fully aware of the potential ramifications.
Use Proper Redirects
When setting up multiple domains such as those mentioned above, it's important that you set up each one properly. Setting up domains improperly can lead to duplicate site/content penalties on the search engines which will ultimately be bad for business....Many websites employ on-page JavaScript or meta refresh redirects, or even worse, framed pages pulling in the main site. These methods are effective from the user standpoint but not from the search engine standpoint. The 301 redirect is generally the safest method of redirecting users....
When redirecting multiple URLs there is a neat little trick that saves hosting fees that you'll want to use.
Take one of the redirecting URLs and host it on the cheap. This is the URL that will be set up with the 301 redirect to your main URL.
Take all your other URLs and park them to point to the URL above.
With this method, you pay for only one additional hosting account ($5 at the most) and all your URLs will automatically flip the visitor and the search engines to your main URL.
In marketing, every little bit can help. Even if a redirected domain name only results in one additional sale every few months, it may not be long until that one sale is a significant one."
"
Search Use Grows 39%
MediaPost Publications - Search Use Grows 39% - 03/06/2006: "WEB USERS CONDUCTED A RECORD 5.7 billion searches in January, marking a 39 percent increase from last January's 4.1 billion, according to new data from Nielsen//NetRatings. Search activity in January also increased by about 12 percent from December, when users conducted about 5.1 billion search queries.
Search giant Google accounted for 48 percent of all searches--up from 47 percent last year--while Yahoo captured 22 percent, an increase from last year's 21 percent. MSN garnered 11 percent of search activity, marking a slight decline from last year's 13 percent.
AOL Search was the fourth most popular engine--with 368 million searches, or 6.5 percent--while My Way Search, powered by IAC/Interactive's Ask, garnered 155 million searches, or almost 3 percent. The company's Ask Jeeves brand--which last week was renamed Ask--drew 131 million searches, or around 2 percent."
Biggest search optimisation mistakes 2006
What's the biggest mistake paid search marketers are making today? How about the biggest SEO mistake? Will Pay Per Call really take off? Is click fraud over-hyped?
MarketingSherpa.com : Practical News & Case Studies on Internet Advertising, Marketing & PR: "Search marketing is changing so rapidly that it all feels a bit bewildering.
MSN to launch its new AdCenter... Rumors of a Google algorithm 'earthquake'... Yahoo!'s search team plotting changes to recapture more of the paid ad market. AskJeeves dumped Jeeves.etc etc
Keeping up with all of this is a full-time job. Thing is, you already have a full-time job. Plus, the news-of-the-day that's breathlessly reported in the press often doesn't truly impact your SEM tactics in a meaningful way.
MarketingSherpa asked 12 top search marketers seven basic questions about factors that really will affect many search campaigns in 2006...
Most common or biggest mistakes re paid search marketers strong"Driving to landing pages that are not customized to search, AND the key-word or category searched on is the most common mistake...
Many search marketers invest money and time in Google only..
Not tracking well enough to take full advantage of paid search...
Lose sight of ROI
The biggest search engine optimization (SEO) mistakes (Note: SEO is all the tactics from site design to copywriting that you use to get higher rankings in the "organic" listing on engines. Although you may pay consultants for SEO help, you don't pay the search engines a dime.)
often see that what the SEO team wants to have implemented is either denied or only partly implemented because technology invented or purchased by IT staff will not easily accommodate the needed SEO changes, and instead of supporting the SEO effort the information technology (web design) team will fight the changes....
many IT departments simply do not want to change their systems because they do not understand the importance of SEO. Until the entire web team is taught to 'think search engine' and every member gets it, SEO will always be a battle, and most often a very frustrating losing battle.Trying to optimize for too many terms and not focusing on the top volume and highest converting phrases.
By not being involved at the strategic level they suggest optimization tactics that do not respect the branding and positioning of the company they are working for. This leads to search results that are embarrassing or misleading...
Participating in inappropriate and often damaging linking scams in hopes of improving their search rankings, and ending up banned from an engine completely. Second biggest mistake: Outsourcing to a firm that does the same. They can walk away from the damage done, you can't."
"
The most common mistakes we see are: not planning for the traffic drops associated with major site re-designs by increasing paid search and/or re-launching during slower traffic times; not having solid analytics in place to understand the business outcomes and not just traffic arriving at your site from organic search; and looking at search as its own initiative rather than a part of your online marketing mix."
what's the best competitive tactic to improving search ROI for 2006 for clients who have expanded their keywords as far really as it's worth going?"A keyword list is a living entity. It should be constantly refined according to seasonality and be consistent with trends in market and human search behavior.
Using press releases to get search engine traction -- this appears to be the hot trend of 2006"
There are techniques in using appropriate keywords and link architecture in press releases that work, but the best practical advice I can offer is make sure you have something newsworthy before issuing a press release.
"We've actually seen this as a successful strategy since 2004, but now it seems like everyone's getting on the bandwagon
Pay Per Call -- is this going to get enough traction to be a major segment in 2006? Who should be testing it, and who should not?"May not have enough revenues in 2006 to be 'major,' but it will gain further momentum.
Linking strategies -- getting hot again for SEO (shades of 1996), got a practical tip or stuff to avoid on this front?
"Please please, please know the pros and cons of any tactic you decide to try. The engines are actively looking to identify linking tactics driven by SEO motives. The best strategies for one site are not the best strategies for every site. Holistic Linking will become much more vital."
-- Eric Ward, President, EricWard.com
"Too many clients are obsessed with the number of links pointing to their sites. Focus instead on the quality, relevance of content and anchor text of the links. A small number of big wins will beat a large number of insignificant and irrelevant links every time."
Fredrick Marckini, CEO iProspect
Are you alarmed by any trends in Search Marketing Industry these days?ever-present click fraud issue
the speed at which innovation is happening. Every day, there are new developments with local search, mobile search, video search, increased targeting, personalization, and emerging technologies.
With too many organizations, the search team witnesses a spike in search referrals and only later learns that an off-line marketing campaign hit. Organizations must integrate their efforts and keep the search firm in the loop if they want to win in the new digital marketplace."
Biggest search optimisation mistakes 2006
What's the biggest mistake paid search marketers are making today? How about the biggest SEO mistake? Will Pay Per Call really take off? Is click fraud over-hyped?
MarketingSherpa.com : Practical News & Case Studies on Internet Advertising, Marketing & PR: "Search marketing is changing so rapidly that it all feels a bit bewildering.
MSN to launch its new AdCenter... Rumors of a Google algorithm 'earthquake'... Yahoo!'s search team plotting changes to recapture more of the paid ad market. AskJeeves dumped Jeeves.etc etc
Keeping up with all of this is a full-time job. Thing is, you already have a full-time job. Plus, the news-of-the-day that's breathlessly reported in the press often doesn't truly impact your SEM tactics in a meaningful way.
MarketingSherpa asked 12 top search marketers seven basic questions about factors that really will affect many search campaigns in 2006...
Most common or biggest mistakes re paid search marketers strong>
"Driving to landing pages that are not customized to search, AND the key-word or category searched on is the most common mistake...
Many search marketers invest money and time in Google only..
Not tracking well enough to take full advantage of paid search...
Lose sight of ROI
The biggest search engine optimization (SEO) mistakes
(Note: SEO is all the tactics from site design to copywriting that you use to get higher rankings in the "organic" listing on engines. Although you may pay consultants for SEO help, you don't pay the search engines a dime.)
often see that what the SEO team wants to have implemented is either denied or only partly implemented because technology invented or purchased by IT staff will not easily accommodate the needed SEO changes, and instead of supporting the SEO effort the information technology (web design) team will fight the changes.... many IT departments simply do not want to change their systems because they do not understand the importance of SEO. Until the entire web team is taught to 'think search engine' and every member gets it, SEO will always be a battle, and most often a very frustrating losing battle.
Trying to optimize for too many terms and not focusing on the top volume and highest converting phrases.
By not being involved at the strategic level they suggest optimization tactics that do not respect the branding and positioning of the company they are working for. This leads to search results that are embarrassing or misleading...
Participating in inappropriate and often damaging linking scams in hopes of improving their search rankings, and ending up banned from an engine completely. Second biggest mistake: Outsourcing to a firm that does the same. They can walk away from the damage done, you can't."
"The most common mistakes we see are: not planning for the traffic drops associated with major site re-designs by increasing paid search and/or re-launching during slower traffic times; not having solid analytics in place to understand the business outcomes and not just traffic arriving at your site from organic search; and looking at search as its own initiative rather than a part of your online marketing mix."
what's the best competitive tactic to improving search ROI for 2006 for clients who have expanded their keywords as far really as it's worth going?
"A keyword list is a living entity. It should be constantly refined according to seasonality and be consistent with trends in market and human search behavior.
Using press releases to get search engine traction -- this appears to be the hot trend of 2006"
There are techniques in using appropriate keywords and link architecture in press releases that work, but the best practical advice I can offer is make sure you have something newsworthy before issuing a press release.
"We've actually seen this as a successful strategy since 2004, but now it seems like everyone's getting on the bandwagon
Pay Per Call -- is this going to get enough traction to be a major segment in 2006? Who should be testing it, and who should not?
"May not have enough revenues in 2006 to be 'major,' but it will gain further momentum.
Linking strategies -- getting hot again for SEO (shades of 1996), got a practical tip or stuff to avoid on this front?
"Please please, please know the pros and cons of any tactic you decide to try. The engines are actively looking to identify linking tactics driven by SEO motives. The best strategies for one site are not the best strategies for every site. Holistic Linking will become much more vital."
-- Eric Ward, President, EricWard.com
"Too many clients are obsessed with the number of links pointing to their sites. Focus instead on the quality, relevance of content and anchor text of the links. A small number of big wins will beat a large number of insignificant and irrelevant links every time."
Fredrick Marckini, CEO iProspect
Are you alarmed by any trends in Search Marketing Industry these days?
ever-present click fraud issue
the speed at which innovation is happening. Every day, there are new developments with local search, mobile search, video search, increased targeting, personalization, and emerging technologies.
With too many organizations, the search team witnesses a spike in search referrals and only later learns that an off-line marketing campaign hit. Organizations must integrate their efforts and keep the search firm in the loop if they want to win in the new digital marketplace."
