MasterLink Internet Marketing

The Perfect Interactive Marketing Solution

2008-09-03T12:56:00.003-06:00

When you aim for perfection, you discover it's a moving target. ~George Fisher

Don’t let your desire for perfection get in the way of your marketing goals. Being hesitant and indecisive when forming ideas for your interactive marketing strategy can waste a lot of valuable time. It can also cost you some valuable leads that you would be generating if you had just committed to getting it up and running. Time is money, and the more time you spend not having an effective online marketing solution, the less money you are going to be making.

Some people will spend months or years polishing a business plan, making sure every single detail is examined and estimated, only to find that in practice, it’s not as they imagined it. That’s way too much time wasted planning and thinking, when they should have be doing and learning.

The same is true about your Interactive Marketing Solution. You know that you need to figure something out to stay competitive. All this talk about Web 2.0, corporate blogging, and social media is pretty confusing. It’s scary knowing that you need to do something, yet having no clue on what to do. How can you identify what is right for your company?

Well, the best advice is to let someone (I suggest MasterLink) help you formulate an Interactive Marketing Action Plan. Working with a collaborative Interactive Marketing partner to identify your goals and objectives is a great way to establish what your interactive marketing solution should be. By setting goals, it is then easy to work backwards to discover ways of achieving them. Hey, it turns out you don’t need that corporate blog or the fancy 3-d flash intro after all. Nice!

Marketing is an ongoing process. You discover that your favorite campaigns are not quite as effective as you planned, or that the one you had no hopes for, surprisingly has a high conversion rate. Because the nature of marketing is so volatile, the best strategy is to get it going and just test, tweak, test, tweak, test, etc.

You can come up with millions of excuses not to get a website up, not to set up a Pay-Per-Click campaign to drive traffic to your company’s product pages, or not to start utilizing Search Engine Optimization to increase your business’ online visibility and credibility. Stop it! Quit making excuses.

Your best option is to start right now before your competition leaves you in their dust. When you spend so much time looking for the “best” choice that you never actually do anything, you are sabotaging your company.

Even if the target is moving, it still is best to shoot. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

5 Ways to Make Your Landing Page Stick

2008-08-27T10:45:00.011-06:00

Having a landing page that sticks is imperative to online success. Your company’s landing page is the first thing visitors see when they come to your website, and it's the only thing that determines whether they hit the back button or stay to learn more.

Let’s look at five ways that will help make your landing pages stick:

Highlight Keywords Earlier- If someone lands on your page after searching for "mortgage Texas," make sure those keywords show up earlier in the copy. It’s pretty annoying when you visit a website and it takes 25 minutes just to find what you were originally searching for.

Have Congruent Images - Stock images that vaguely describe what you do are not going to boost conversions. Please do not put up a picture of 4 people that look like they are auditioning for next season's Apprentice if you are selling landscaping services. Testing images to see which increases conversion is key.

Keep it Easy on the Eyes- This means leaving lots of white space, writing in bullet points, and putting key points in bold. Clutter on a landing page should be avoided at all costs.

"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler" – Einstein

Make the Most of your Header- Your header is prime real estate. Design it to create an impression. Make sure it shows off the image that you wish to project to your prospects and clients. It doesn’t have to be magnificent, but it better look clean and professional!

Have Clear Contact Us Info- The main point of having a landing page is to get your visitor to perform a certain action. In most business situations, you want the prospect to call you or submit information for follow-up. In either situation, make sure that your contact information or that lead generation survey is nice and clear.

Most importantly, be sure to tweak and test your landing pages to find out what works best for your unique situation.

PS. Check out this landing page we designed for our client, TexasLending.com. and their free mortgage quote.

Google’s Motives for Banning WebPosition

2008-08-26T09:59:00.012-06:00

Experience has taught me that corporations like to make certain that every bit of their resources are dedicated to a task. That is why I was wondering what Google had in mind when they blocked the automatic page ranking programs like WebPosition Gold.

WebPosition Gold and other similar programs consume search engine resources every time they are run. Google has threatened to block them for this very reason for years, but they have only enforced the threat recently.

Now, according to John at PPC Hero, Google is going to creating a QA Score for each individual search query for each Adwords ad that is applicable. That sounds like a massive undertaking that requires a significant amount of resources, since there are literally billions of search queries performed daily. It seems more than coincidental that the two changes are occurring at roughly the same time. What do you think?

Manage Google Adwords in Any Language

2008-08-07T10:08:00.010-06:00

I can manage Adwords campaigns in any language supported by Google. That’s right, any language. The only language I know fluently is English, although I am studying basic Russian. So, how can I manage Adwords in languages I don’t know? And why would I?

First, let me clarify. I refuse to manage a search marketing campaign for a language I can’t translate. Even if I had the ad copy translated for me, I wouldn’t be able to understand the many distinct permutations of words or phrases, the conjugations of verbs, or the day-to-day vernacular that native speakers of a language can. While a great deal of my job is nothing more than analyzing numbers, it still requires an insite of what users are intending in any particular search.

The standard response when asked to support another language is to outsource the ad. I don’t care for the idea of someone else being responsible for my credibility. If I say I’m going to get a client results, I would rather not have to constantly explain those results to a client. Plus, I’d rather not increase the amount of money I’m asking of a client only to see most of that money go elsewhere.

For starters, the trick is not to simply choose another language while still using English ad copy. Spanish speakers might still click on an English ad, for example, but they are highly unlikely to actually convert. Quite frankly, it is bad practice to do so. I find it surprising how often I have to explain to others that Google does not translate ads for them.

The simple trick is to manage ads on the Content Network. Since Google cares more about the theme of the keywords in a Content Network ad than anything else, there is no perpetual shifting of keywords. The only difficult part is the initial setup. From that point forward it is purely a numbers game.

First, you’ll want to get the keywords and ad copy you would want as if it were an English ad. If you are also running an English ad then use that one as your starting point. You will still need to either outsource the translation to someone else or to the client specifically. Make certain to have four or five text ad copies ready. Since their translation may not sound as good as your initial text, you need to monitor the performance of the ad copy closely, and stop displaying some text accordingly. Google is mostly concerned with the keyword themes in adgroups on the Content Network, so most translations should be fine if your initial English keywords were grouped correctly.

From that point forward, you will simply monitor the Placement Performance report and block sites that perform poorly. Now, for those marketers that do not like the Content Network, you will have outsource the product.

Knol: Great for Google or Bad?

2008-07-24T14:25:00.002-06:00

I thoroughly enjoy Wikipedia and use it frequently. I love to read information and facts, and Wikipedia makes doing so all too easy. The information is of course provided by users, so there is a lot of info on Wikipedia that is wrong, but overall it is still informative.

Google liked the idea so much that they decided to take the same idea and monetize it. Now, users can create informational articles on ‘Knol’ (www.Knol.Google.com) and create an ad to go along with the article. The articles default to allow Adsense ads to which the writer will share some of the revenue. Google says that there is very little oversight to the veracity of the ads except that users can leave reviews.

This sounds easy to take advantage of for profit. One of the problems with the idea comes down to the fact that Google is the one that gets the rest of the profit. They are also the one that controls the rankings. While, I really do believe that Google will operate with integrity and avoid unfair practices, I still think that Google is opening up a can of worms they may not be prepared for.

The other problem is directly on Google.com search results. Most search results pages are littered with at least one Wikipedia link or more. It stands to reason that Knol will do the same as long as the information within the articles is significantly different. This will create another challenge for the SEO community. Luckily, I’m just a PPC specialist. More Adsense space creates more Content Network real estate for my clients. Heck, creating an article designed for a client’s ad seems to be……..ummm…forget I said that.

Anyways, despite the way it sounds, I really do like the idea of another open source encyclopedia. I love the offerings that Google brings to the web. I think Google would have been well advised to walk away from this one. As questionable as the idea sounds for Google, Knol is going in my fav’s anyways.

Search Engine Friendly Flash

2008-07-22T12:41:00.001-06:00

Recently Adobe, the software provider of Flash, announced it is providing optimized Adobe Flash Player technology to Google and Yahoo! The new development is said to improve search results for Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) in the Flash file format.

Adobe explained on their website:

"This will provide more relevant automatic search rankings of the millions of RIAs and other dynamic content that run in Adobe Flash Player. Moving forward, RIA developers and rich web content producers won't need to amend existing and future content to make it searchable—they can now be confident that it can be found by users around the globe."

That all sounds great, but I wouldn't go and redesign your CSS and HTML developed site for an all Flash experience just yet.

There are still many issues to consider that can prevent the search engines from treating your Flash content as regular HTML text. Back when Al Gore created the internet ;-) it started as primarily text based pages. The search engine algorithms were built around analyzing that text. And that has not changed.

Search engines may now be able to access the text within a Flash file but they cannot quite process it as they do HTML text. They still look in the HTML for important meta data used to structure the HTML. This information can include the title tag, the formatting code as in H1, bolded text and lists as well as image alt tags.

In addition to the limits of processing text in Flash, the search engines will have problems with the lack of unique URLs found in Flash sites. Many times a Flash site is all contained within the homepage URL. As you navigate through the site the URL never changes. This means all of the text processed by the search engines will have to be indexed as one single page. It also means that they may not process all of the text in the site as they will not execute all of the actions within the Flash.

The indexing of Flash text may also cause less than ideal user experiences. As the search engines find text within the Flash site not contained in the first level a visitor may discover the site in the search results only to find once they click through that the text they're searching for is not there. Rather than trying to navigate though the site to find what they're looking for they'll likely click the back button to find a page that has that info right away.

Now I'm not saying all Flash is bad. We create Flash animations on many of our web site designs. And since we are also search engine optimization company our designers typically limit the Flash portion to a small animated banner at the top of a page that has images and text. The text not being that important for search engines as we make sure the sites and pages all have plenty of unique indexable HTML text content to feed to the search engines. This type of Flash use has never been a big concern for us and still isn't. The concerns would be for those sites whose entire development was done in Flash. I'm not betting on those sites magically ranking for competitive terms suddenly.

The Big Questions Surrounding the Yahoo-Google Deal

2008-06-13T15:02:00.000-06:00

In case you haven't heard the news Yahoo will begin showing Google's Adwords ads in the next few months pending a Justice Department review. This all happened on the same day that Microsoft and Yahoo officially broke off talks about Microsoft buying Yahoo.

The big questions are:

1. What does this do for Yahoo?
The ads on Google have more competitive bids. Yahoo will receive a percentage of what Google receives from these clicks. This will actually bring more money to Yahoo than their own ads by themselves. This will also probably give Yahoo a jump-start to their bidding competitions. It remains to be seen whether the Google ads compete with the Yahoo ads on a level playing field.

2. What does this do for Google?
This will not actually improve Google's statistics for search volume. Still, it's just one more piece of real estate for Google to expand their ad network to. It also provides a way for Google to boost its click revenue.

3. What does this mean for the search industry?
Google is growing in dominance. Yahoo is being given a brief reprieve from their long slow fall from grace. Microsoft is left at the altar wondering what could have been.

5 Reasons You Lost the Deal

2008-06-04T11:53:00.002-06:00

Your sales person has brought a potential client into the office, your team has made the stellar pitch, and the energy between everyone was electric. In the end the $20,000 a month deal went to another agency. After going through the usual check-list of reasons in your head try going through this additional list.

Techie-Talk – Most search marketers that I know don’t have a marketing background. Most of them have a tech background which drove them to search. If they can’t speak money to a client the deal is probably going to be hard to get past that business’s marketing department.
Condescension – Trying to prove to a potential client that you know your stuff by throwing out all the industry jargon can come off like a call to a tech-support guru. The caller walks away feeling insulted.
Confusing Data – Clients only care about click-through-rate if that means more money for their company. This is like the number one issue. If they can’t understand the data then it is worthless information.
Reputation – It is too easy to mislead a company, and the corporations are catching onto this fact. They are acting more and more like the sales process is an interview. They are searching the web for the name of the agencies they are talking to. Poor placement on the search engines or negative links look like your company doesn’t know what it is doing. Talk the talk. Walk the walk.
Employees – This is the same as the last note, except that it applies to the employees. Any person the potential client might meet is game for being searched. Who really cares if one of your people has posts about their drunken exploits on their MySpace page? Your clients do. It smacks of a lack of professionalism.

Just because you’re in the industry doesn’t mean you can fool clients. It is just too competitive out there. Make sure your clients see the best side of you, and you will be rewarded.

SEO Seminar in Dallas - SEO Fast Start Live With Dan Thies

2008-06-03T12:33:00.005-06:00

Dan Thies, a Dallas area SEO known as the "keyword guru" and author of the SEO Fast Start e-book is holding a seminar, SEO Fast Start Live in Dallas on June 25 & 26 at the Crowne Plaza in Addison. Dan is recognized in the industry as an SEO expert and has been practicing and teaching search engine optimization for over 10 years.

SEO Fast Start is a free e-book offering step by step instructions for a process-driven method of SEO including planning, measuring, & improving your ROI. Dan will be expanding on many of the topics in his book during the live Dallas seminar.

"During this intensive 2-day training, we will discuss how SEO and PPC fit into the larger picture of your business… how to develop better strategies, tactics, and processes to maximize your return on investment from search engine marketing."

The agenda includes:

Understanding Your Brand
Keyword Strategy
Content Development / Copywriting
Link Building
Google AdWords - PPC
Social Media

It's not often that a good SEO conference comes through Dallas so if you're looking to learn about or expand your knowledge of SEO and have an opportunity to network with some of the brightest SEOs in Dallas, don't miss this event. You have until tomorrow June 4 to sign up for SEO Fast Start Live with the early bird discount for $97.

We'll be there!

Viewzi Search Engine - Dallas Men Create "Google Killer"?

2008-06-02T14:11:00.001-06:00

While I was watching prime time tv last week a CBS 11 News teaser caught my attention with the headline "Dallas Web Designers Ready To Compete With Google".

Now I don't really watch the local news much and although my boyfriend was a bit dismayed at the fact that we'd be missing part of The Daily Show with John Stewart, I knew I had to stay tuned for this story.

These Dallas men along with several from California and Hawaii created a new search engine, Viewzi. Now Viewzi isn't exactly just like other search engines. Google, Yahoo, Ask and MSN are all text based search engines. These basically show the results for web pages as text with the title, description and URL. Viewzi is much more interactive.

With Viewzi there are several options for viewing your search results. There's the Simple Text View which shows combined results from Google and Yahoo in a familiar text listing format. There's special viewing options for video, images, mp3s and Amazon books results. The Weather View is also particularly handy but not so much for it to be a daily destination for me.

There's a Everyday Shopping view which shows results from Amazon, Ebay, Target and Walmart. This could be handy depending on what you're looking for as it shows images of the actual products.

The two views I found most useful, yet not so much that I'd actually use them regularly are Web Screenshot View and 4 Sources View. In the Web Screenshot View you get Yahoo search results with a nice screenshot of the website. However, there's only one result on screen at a time and you have to scroll through one by one. In addition, the screenshots seem to take some time to load (note they are still in beta, so this may be temporary slowness). As a Search Engine Optimization specialist, this is not great news unless you already have a 1st place ranking in Yahoo. If not you have to hope the Viewzi users like to scroll a few pages.

Next up is the 4 Sources View. This one is my favorite for playing around with so far. This view provides the 8 top results for Google, Yahoo, Ask and MSN all on the same page. It also shows a screenshot all of the results, unfortunately the screenshots load somewhat slowly here as well.

The 4 Sources View results can be customized to show whichever engines you are interested in. You can choose to view Google results only, or Google and Yahoo only. This feature is helpful in comparing results in the top search engines all in one place, which is handy. I like searching in this view, it's fun. But I'm not sure that it'd be that useful if I were a regular searcher and not a curious SEO. First of all it's not very intuitive, I can just picture my mom and dad trying to figure out how to use this. Secondly the ordering of the results from the 4 engines seems so random. Why is Yahoo sometimes on top, MSN other times and some spaces have results stacked up from 3 engines and others with only one? What's it all mean?

All in all the Viewzi team did an incredible job designing the site. I love the look and feel with all of the graphics, image navigation and web site screenshots. I just don't see this as anything that Google will worry about. People use search engines to get to the information they are searching for fast. They don't want to scroll through large screenshots or mess around with reordering the 4 big search engines while searching in another. I think of Viewzi as more of a fun "alternative" search engine and not a "Google Killer". I just seriously doubt that Average Joe Surfer will be migrating to Viewzi and adding "Viewzi this" and "Viewzi that" to the internet vocabulary anytime soon.

Viewzi's public launch is scheduled for June 9th. If you'd like to try out Viewzi now check out the CBS 11 news story "Dallas Web Designers Ready To Compete With Google" for a referral code.

4 Easy Stats to Watch for in Analytics

2008-05-23T08:59:00.001-06:00

Analytics is a dirty word to many web users. The word depicts tons of boring stats that only a select few individuals can make heads or tails of. Goal conversions, funnels, filters, and traffic sources make a user's head spin. Don't stop reading just yet. There are actually some easier stats to understand that will directly affect how your web site design.

Here's the good news - Most of the information is easy to find and easy to read

Here's the bad news - It requires actually exploring a few minutes to find these things. *gasp*

I know. I said this was going to be easy. It is easy once you know what to look for. I'm not going to walk you through the steps to find this information. That's your job, and I'd have to list the steps for each analytics. So, here are the 4 easy stats to watch for in Analytics and why they're important.

1 - Flash support - If your website uses any amount of flash at all, it is important to know if your users have flash and that they have the version you are using. If 10 percent of them do not then you have a problem. See? That was easy, right?

2 - Broadband - If you have a high percentage of dial-up users, and your site loads slow on dial-up, you'll want to address this fact. A previous client of mine had the opposite effect. Their dial-up users converted better than their broadband users. The assumption was that once a page loaded, any page at all, the users were committed.

3. Version of OS - No matter how much you love Linux or Mac, the majority of users are using Windows. All of your website's details should be PC friendly above all else.

4. Browser type - Every last detail of your site must work when using Internet Explorer. Over 90% of internet users are using it, so your page must be designed with IE in mind.

Make Sure Your Business Is In Front Of Your Customers Faces When They Want You

2008-05-21T13:23:00.007-06:00

Last week I found 2 copies of the Yellow Pages, yes 2 delivered on different days, on my doorstep . You remember Yellow Pages, right? Those huge, thick old style books printed on real paper from trees that you used to have to flip through endlessly trying to find a location or phone number. Antiques, I know. I threw them away, or rather recycled them of course, not knowing I may actually need one one day. I can't remember the last time I did need one. With a world of information at my fingertips anytime I need or want it why would I need this relic? After all, all I need to do is type a few words into Google and they'll do the searching for me and present me with the best, most relevant information. Right? Well, not if your business isn't optimized on the web.

So last night I was looking for dinner. My boyfriend unfortunately got to pick dinner for the night, which of course was fried chicken, my least favorite. Well, I thought we must find a chicken joint that serves macaroni and cheese. If I'm forced to eat fried chicken there better be some cheese involved because, being from Wisconsin I know that it's not really food if it doesn't have cheese on it. But I digress. My boyfriend and I both knew there was a fast food chicken joint up the road from us but we couldn't agree on which one it was.

So, my search began. My boyfriend thought it was a Popeye's Chicken. So, I Googled Popeye's Chicken. The URL for the first result looked promising enough, www.popeyeschicken.com, but in the search results the title only said "WELCOME TO POPEYES!" Woah! First of all quit screaming at me (using all caps can give that impression on your users) and second of all where's the "fried chicken"? I guess they don't want people to find them when searching for fried chicken. I clicked through to the site and found the entire site is in flash so the search engines have know idea what this site is about. I navigate my way through the flash and find the menu. No mac & cheese. Bummer.

Okay, on to Church's Chicken. Googling Churchs Chicken, the search results show www.churchs.com, good. The title is simply "Church's Chicken", at least we know they have chicken. Now, this site is all flash too. Except more annoying as it has all these fancy effects and sounds. I navigate to the menu and wait for the animations to load and find - no mac & cheese!

Okay, obviously I'm not going to get my cheese with dinner. So, while still on the Church's Chicken site I decide to check the locator to determine if it's a Church's up the street. I type in Dallas, TX and the website tells me there are no restaurants in Dallas, TX. Come on now, it's Texas! Of course there are Church's Chicken...and many at that.

Frustrated now, I search for Churchs Chicken Dallas. Google results display a map at the top of the page and 10 links for various Church's locations all linking to churchs.com where the locator did not work. I click though to the map and see there's no restaurant indicated in my area. Okay, maybe that was a Popeye's after all. I Google Popeyes Chicken Dallas and I get the map results where they are all linking to www.popeyes.com instead of popeyeschicken.com. I opt for avoiding yet another dead end site and click through to the Google map. But there's no Popeye's Chicken near me anywhere!

About ready to give up on this whole internet thing (yes, I know that would leave me jobless), I give popeyes.com a chance. What do you know, another flash site. Yippee! This site is different from the first so I check the previous site and finally notice that popeyeschicken.com is only for the Washington DC area, yet it ranks for Popeyes Chicken above the main Popeye's Chicken site which I didn't even notice in my search. Oy! Moving on, I find a link to a locator on popeyes.com in the flash menu. This prompts my browser's pop up blocker to bleep at me. Oh boy, here we go. I go back and this time opt to click on the text link in the footer (yay! at least they have this!). Finally, popeyes.com gets something right and I am taken to a locator that when Dallas, TX is entered it returns results. And there it was, a fried chicken joint up the street. I decided to check the menu on this Popeye's site and low and behold - mac & cheese. Glorious!!!

So, yeah about 30 minutes or more later I got what I was looking for, or so I thought. I think I might have found it faster in the old Yellow Pages. I'm obviously a very experienced internet user and searcher and I had all these problems. I'm sure I would've given up had I not been a curious SEO but a "normal" person.

What I learned from this is that no matter how big your business is, no matter whether you are local or international you absolutely need to use internet marketing services to position yourself to be in front of your customers faces when they are actively looking for you. If you have a business with multiple locations, make sure your business and all physical addresses are verified with Google Maps. If I was an average internet user looking for fried chicken and mac & cheese in Dallas I would've just gone to the nearest KFC and skipped all the hassle I went through.

Finally, it's also important to make sure your website accurately reflects your products and services. If you discontinue or no longer carry an item, take it off the website. Nobody likes to get excited about finding you have mac & cheese on your online menu only to go to your store and find no such thing.

Yes, I was eventually successful at locating a chicken joint with mac & cheese near me, but did I accomplish what I set out to do? Sadly, no. I was like a mouse racing for the cheese at the end of an obstacle course only to have it removed just as I arrived. My local Popeyes had no mac & cheese on the menu when we got there. So after all my searching I had clearly wasted my time and am not going to be interested in fried chicken again any time soon.

5 Common Mistakes People Make in Google Adwords

2008-05-15T09:35:00.003-06:00

All too often I am horrified while reviewing a Google Adwords account. I run into bad campaign settings, large numbers of keywords with poor quality scores, and unappealing ad copy. Even the most studious of novices make what seem to be blatant errors.

Google originally created the Adwords interface as a user-friendly way for new advertisers and old-school veterans alike to be able to immediately jump into the wonderful world of online pay-per-click advertising. The tools that Google has provided are very helpful, and spending money has never been easier.

The idea of turning money into traffic has become extremely palatable to modern business users, but very simple mistakes can destroy any potential success an ad might generate. I thought a quick run-down of the common errors and a couple extra tips thrown into the mix would be helpful.

1. Language Preference Settings – This is accessible through the campaign settings. It is not good practice to select a campaign to display in all languages when the ad is written in English. Google will permit this circumstance to occur, but Google does not translate the ad. Non-English speakers will still see an English ad!

2. Display URL’s are part of the ad copy – A user’s eyes have a hard time distinguishing the words in www.myfavoritebusinesswebsite.com. The words in the URL all run together making it a non-selling point in an ad. The more effective solution is to type www.MyFavoriteBusinessWebsite.com. Now, it jumps out to users’ eyes and encourages them to click.

3. Keyword Relevancy - Including a bunch of keywords in one adgroup and writing an ad that sounds general enough to apply to all keywords is not an effective short-cut. All keywords must be closely related to each other in nature to be successful. Ex. Hammers may be used to put a crib together. They may also both be retail products. The may even be sold by the same manufacturer. Still, hammers and cribs don’t belong in the same adgroup.

4. “Free” keywords do not sell – If you’re trying to sell something, going after keywords with the word “free” is the easiest way to get a good click-through-rate and a terrible conversion rate. When users are searching for something free they are not looking to buy something.

5. The Content Network works – I frequently hear that the Content Network just doesn’t convert. That is simply not true, but the conversion rates are usually lower than search. The bids are usually lower though which frequently makes for an effective cost-per-conversion. My suggestion is to opt your search campaigns out of the Content Network and create a separate “Content Network only” campaign (credit my friend and sensei Brandy Eddings) This makes it easier to eyeball the general stats on the campaign summary screens, and to manage them separately (as they should be). It’s good to test different bidding on the Content Network by raising and lowering the bids until you find the optimum cost-per-conversion amount. I frequently find Google’s help sections inadequate, but their info on this subject is superb. Google Help

Web Analytics Madness

2008-05-06T14:46:00.005-06:00

Yahoo jumped at the opportunity to purchase Index Tools; an analytics provider that charges a relatively small fee to each client to track the hits and conversions going their sites. Yahoo has announced that they will start providing Index Tools free of charge to some users.

Google bought an analytics company, Urchin, several years ago in order to provide this sort of tracking. By offering it free they were able to attract more advertisers. Google Adwords Conversion Tracking, while distinct from Google Analytics, has seen recent improvements as well.

Index Tools and Google Analytics are worlds apart in appearance and user-interface, but as far as functionality, there is very little difference between the two. Google presents more aesthetic looking graphs, while Index Tools makes it easier to cross more data variables on user charts, but the virtually all the same information is accessible through either one.

Acquiring a comparable analytics provider will make them much more attractive for the future, but Google’s upgrades will make it tough still. Google Adwords Conversion Tracking is now able to track more than one type of conversion for the same client. This is phenomenal step forward. Many advertisers want to track when users fill out a standard form or a form for information, but the ability to track both was limited. Each user could only be counted once, but each form was counted as a transaction. Using that format an advertiser could determine how many users had completed both forms, they could not determine which form had been filled out if they were individual form conversions. Google Analytics could be used for this purpose, but the process to do so was time consuming and cumbersome.

Google Analytics has recently started beta testing the ability to track information by different time periods as well; hourly/daily/weekly. While the daily and weekly will save time when creating a report, the hourly reports are the best advancement out of the lot. Previously, one could track all kinds of data for the different times of the day such as clicks, but the conversions weren’t displayed hourly. That means that it was difficult to tell the conversion rates at different times of the day. For a PPC Specialist, the conversion rates are crucial. Let’s hope this offering comes out of beta-testing ASAP.

Why I’m Still a Fan of Microsoft

2008-04-30T11:56:00.002-06:00

The downpour of negativity towards Microsoft is beginning to wear on me. I feel the need to stand up and voice my reasons why I still believe in Microsoft. After all, weren’t they the darling of the media just 10 years ago? Bill Gates was a capitalist icon. He was the geek that proved everyone wrong. He was the one that made being a nerd "cool".

Let me take you down a trip to memory lane. Apple was the big boy, with Steve Jobs at the top. Macintosh and its powerful word processor were destined to replace the typewriter. It was a far better platform than those of us that played around on the old Apple IIe. Its GUI interface was mind-blowing, and floppy disks were rumored to hold entire megabytes someday. Any office place worthy of being in business had to have one.

A decade later, Apple was faltering, and almost half the homes in America had a PC. Microsoft was innovative, and above all else it was cheap. Mac lovers were either dinosaurs or were working on graphic designing at the universities. Billions of dollars were spent on hardware upgrades for PC’s, while Mac’s had a hard time being upgraded. It really didn’t matter that Mac’s didn’t need to upgrade much, since they were top-of-the-line to begin with. Computer geeks were able to fiddle with IRQ’s for hours, while Mac users rarely knew what an IRQ was. Working on a broken PC made a geek seem smart in the eyes’ of others.
Working on a broken Mac was short and simple. It was no coincidence that Steve Jobs’ tenure at Apple was also short at the time. Steve Jobs has only achieved great success since he came back to Apple because he learned one valuable lesson; don’t challenge Microsoft’s dominance of the desktop market.

All of the major failings of PC’s became huge selling points, while Apple struggled to market to a small percentage of the population. Why was that? Simple: It was the price of the Mac. Apple was determined to make the Macintosh the Mercedes Benz of the computing world. Microsoft wanted their computers in the home of every home. Here’s a simple fact: the Volkswagen Beetle (Bug) was the most sold car in the history of cars. It was also one of the cheapest, and easiest to fix.

I might own a Mercedes Benz, but I will probably buy numerous cheap cars in the meantime. I don’t have to search for parts for cheap cars, just like I don’t have to search for PC software. It is the exact opposite for Macintosh and Mercedes Benz. If most people used a Mac, most viruses would target Macintosh computers. Is my point becoming clear? For the many awful mistakes that Microsoft has made through the years, there is a reason why they dominate the computing market. Without Microsoft, most homes in America would not have a computer at all.

What to Make of the Yahoo Buyout

2008-04-17T11:15:00.007-06:00

It's hard to tell how big of a deal it would be if Microsoft buys Yahoo. You see, Yahoo's old search platform, Overture, used to power MSN Search. Anyone remember a couple of years ago when Yahoo's search totals took a huge dive? I mean the really big dive, not the other big ones. You see, much of that was due to the loss of the MSN contract. It wasn't that people stopped using Yahoo so much as it was that Yahoo could no longer count MSN's numbers towards their own totals.

If Microsoft buys up Yahoo, this is likely to reverse trend. Anyone that has used Live Search, the engine that powers MSN Search, then you already know how much of an improvement this could be. I am like many people in that I do not care for Microsoft adCenter. The interface is not user friendly, and the documentation leaves a lot to be desired. Yahoo, now powered by Panama, could simply resume powering MSN Search. That would make one less stop to make when managing pay-per-click campaigns and it would be easier.

Of course, if Microsoft is unsuccessful at buying Yahoo then the remaining players would most likely be Apple, Google, or no one at all. Yahoo and Apple together would be awesome. My Yahoo combined with iTunes? There's some marketing power. What if Google bought Yahoo? It's hard to imagine the government allowing such a merger for monopoly reasons. But hey, Google is becoming the future Skynet (and probably will be once they complete their search for Sarah Connor!). Heck, AOL could even jump in and show Yahoo how mismanagement is really done.

I think Yahoo would be making a bad choice if they stayed put, but I thought the same thing when Nintendo turned down Microsoft's buyout offer for their game console biz. Nintendo knew they had a core market that was profitable. They only needed to change the way they operated. Then again, how likely is it that Yahoo could replicate the success of the Wii?

Long Tail of Search - Choosing Your Keywords

2008-03-12T12:55:00.006-06:00

As more companies are increasingly using organic search marketing to promote their products and services, it can be more difficult to achieve the higher rankings for generic terms that everyone else in your industry is pursuing. While essentially any search engine ranking is achievable given the right amount of time, money and resources, you need to decide whether the additional effort involved is worth it, considering you can get overall better results from a campaign by making sure that a high percentage of people that are typing keyphrases into search engines are looking for exactly what you have to offer.

A good way to accomplish this is by including keyword modifiers, or additional descriptive words, in the keyphrases that you target on your site. This helps to make sure that the traffic that comes to your site is highly targeted, meaning they are looking for exactly what you are offering and are therefore much more likely to convert by making a purchase or filling out a form. By including descriptive words you are targeting what is called the “long tail” of search.

To illustrate this, suppose your web site sells cars, but specifically specializes in selling used cars to people in the Dallas Metroplex area who possibly have bad credit. Since we are selling cars we could definitely say that we want the site to rank for the most general keyword “cars”. But in doing so, we could be spending time on generating traffic that is not even interested in your site. For instance some visitors may have been looking to “rent luxury cars” or for a company that performs “repairs on import cars”. These visitors will go back to the search results to find what they were looking for. The time, money and effort spent on ranking your site for the keyword “cars” was not the wisest choice. The better strategy would have been to optimize for keyphrases like “buy used cars dallas” and “dallas bad credit car loans”, etc.

As you can see, the more words that searchers add to their query, the more qualified they become. Someone searching for “landscape” may be looking for landscape photos or for employment as a landscaper. The point is, it’s hard to tell. When they start adding words to their query they are coming closer to finding exactly what they want. In this scenario, when the searcher uses “Dallas residential landscape company”, we know that this person is actually looking for a company in Dallas that provides residential landscaping services. This searcher is decidedly more qualified as a potential landscape services client.

Finding keywords that are shown to have 5,000, or even 500 searches a day can feel like discovering gold. However, these "popular" search terms only account for less than 30% of total internet searches. The other 70% of searches are the "long tail" which consists of millions of unique searches that may only be searched for a few times in a day, but, when totaled, they make up the majority of the world's searches in the search engines.

To make it even more interesting, 25% of Google’s total user queries are unique, meaning they have never been searched for before. Long tail searches are becoming more and more common; a recent report now shows that the average Google query consists of 4 words and not 3. That’s up for the first time ever as of Q4 2007, from the long-time 3 word per query Google user average.

So as searchers become more sophisticated in their search engine use by adding more words to their queries to find the most relative content, it enables us to target these long tail keyphrases to drive a higher percentage of targeted traffic to your site. Targeted traffic = qualified customers = more conversions.

Craigslist is Stealing My SERPs!

2007-08-15T13:39:00.000-06:00

I was checking on one of our client's rankings with keywords "dallas dumpster rentals" today. I found the resulting Google SERPs astounding. I've seen spammy results before, but nothing quite like this lately. I checked up to the 10th page and found each one was riddled with Craigslist postings except for a handful of valid entries.

Apparently someone has been quite busy spamming Craigslist. These pages are keyword stuffed with a link, each one pointing to a different location with the anchor text, "Find a Home Contractor". The link then redirects to http://www.servicemagic.com.

Below is just a sample of the text found on the Craigslist postings (link removed, anchor text in red). I did not include all of it as there are 2 1/2 pages worth of keywords crammed in there:

Find all types of Home Improvement Contractors at Find a Home Contractor All types of work and all trades, from dumpster rentals, handyman, painting contractors, floor installers, pressure washing, brick masons to heating and air conditioning, even find an architect or land surveyor. Also have things like gravel or topsoil delivered. All Contractors are pre-screened, save time. Send an e-mail and get contacted back for your estimates.

rental roll off recycling gutters clean shredded mulch buy top soil dallas dumpster metal stairs asbestos cost removal pool enclosure railing stair wood drafting business mobile homes move basement leaks home duct cleaning construction waste removal barbed wire fencing pvc gutters shed installation fire repair sprinkler fuel tank replacement water well information blown insulation pool built crushed stone window sills replace control bees wallpaper-hanger home fire protection cost fill dirt paint contractor washer and dryer repair fix a dripping faucet fire sprinkler installation synthetic golf green building architects

Some of the posts have been removed or flagged for removal and I'll probably try to report some of the ones still in there. I just can't seem to figure out how Google determined that all of these Craigslist postings are more relevant than a website whose sole purpose is in dealing with dumpster rentals in Dallas, without the use of keyword stuffing. It reminds me of the Google Maps spam abuse that happened last month.

So, aside from me going into each of these Craigslist posts and reporting them as spam, any tips on how I should deal with this and get these spammers out of my SERPs so my client can get back in there where they belong?

Setting Goals for your Web Site

2007-08-13T14:29:00.000-06:00

When building your site remember to have a specific goal planned. I have heard business owners describe the purpose of their sites in many strange and bizarre ways. From a marketing perspective you should have a predetermined goal for visitors on your site. I’ve come to the conclusion that there are generally 3 basic goals for business web sites. There may be some odd ones out there but they can usually be narrowed down into these 3 groups.

1. Revenue Generating
This site has some type of e-commerce where visitor can come in and buy something or this site generates revenue by selling ads/ad space

2. Lead Generating
This sites main function is to generate lead either through a form that can be filled online or pushing visitors to dial into a call center

3. Brochure Site
This is generally an information site. Although not the best use of a site, theses tend to lean a little towards Lead Generating.

Revenue Generating by far is the most common one. Just about every site you go on is selling something or has links that are selling something. These sites can also have shopping carts incorporated into them to increase the ease of visitors purchasing more products. You are also looking into security certifications here for credit card orders.

Lead Generating sites will/should have their phone number plastered everywhere. They can also point visitors towards an information form for the company to call or email them back. Another variant, of this model is to give something away, some type of review software with a time limit, a book or report in soft copy but you must fill out the form in order to receive it.

Brochure sites will have their contact information listed but they are not really pushing to get your information. The goal here may not be as clearly defined. Generally, these sites were built simply to have a web presence. Although useful for adding credibility to your company, it should be geared at least, more towards the Lead Generating type.

The moral of the story here is to always have a set goal for your web site. This information will help in the development and growth of your site. By knowing in advance where you would like your visitors to end up, helps to create what you will need to get them there.

MasterLink offers top ranking website design and development, graphic design, flash design, e-commerce programming and design, search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing services (SEM), database integration, software development, hosting, server collocation, Internet access, video streaming and video conferencing.

Squidoo Back in Google Results

2007-07-27T11:09:00.000-06:00

There have been many reports earlier this month on Squidoo, a co-op site that allows anyone to create web pages on just about anything they want for free. Squidoo has been used (or abused?) by SEO's, internet marketers, and spammers for the last year to gain links and search engine visibility. Squidoo pages, or lenses as they call them, ranked surprisingly well for relatively competitive terms rather easily and quickly. The traffic to lenses which ranked well could then be directed to any other site via links.

That all changed when Google seemingly penalized the site. Squidoo lenses disappeared from the search engine results across the board. Duncan Riley of TechCrunch wrote about Google Acting Against Squidoo Due To Spam:

"The reports indicate that some Squidoo pages have seen a 75% drop in traffic, and in other cases have either been removed from high ranking positions on Google, or removed all together."

Now I have a few Squidoo lenses out there with links pointing to my clients sites. These were ranking well in the search engines, but we didn't really feel the hit of the so-called "Squid Slap". Fortunately, we Never Put All our Social Marketing Eggs in One Basket as social marketing blogger Michelle MacPhearson suggests.

Well apparently Squidoo is back. Seth Godin, founder of Squidoo, wrote on the Squidoo blog:

"Those of you who track Squidoo pretty closely know that we had a lousy week. 30 spammers took advantage of us and blew Squidoo’s name all over the web.
The good news is that as of Thursday, July 12th, all of those holes are closed. We erred on the side of goodwill, and we’re going to be a lot more careful in the future."

Today we noticed Squidoo lenses back in Google's search results, even at #1 & #2:

Interestingly, the results above show our lens at #1 and the links feed at #2. The clients actual site with the keyword in the URL is ranked at #3. While I love to see a domination in the SERPs like that, I can't seem to figure out why the Squidoo lenses are now outranking the actual site that has more content and a stronger domain.

Has anyone else noticed Squidoo pages not only back in the search results, but perhaps ranking even higher than before the "Squid Slap"?

Using Blogs for Online Advertising

2007-07-23T12:42:00.000-06:00

The market for paid blogging has been receiving much attention recently. Services like PayPerPost have created an unprecedented business model which connects advertisers with bloggers. Advertisers gain publicity and traffic while improving their rankings with the search engines. Bloggers also receive an opportunity to generate revenue from their Web site.

Paid blogging delivers online word of mouth marketing, brand awareness and traffic leads for the advertiser. Companies like PayPerPost provide advertisers with a way to promote their Web site, products, services or company through a network of independent bloggers. Companies can team up with bloggers to generate buzz, build traffic, and receive product feedback, as well as gain links, syndicate content and much more all in an effort to improve their internet marketing plan.

In a staff opinion issued by the Federal Trade Commission, the consumer protection agency discussed the practice. Though no accurate figures exist on how much money advertisers spend on paid blogging, it is quickly becoming a preferred method for reaching consumers who are skeptical of other forms of advertising.

The FTC proposed that companies engaging in word-of-mouth marketing, in which people are compensated to promote products to their peers, must disclose those relationships.

I can’t seem to wrap my head around that line of thinking. Why should bloggers be required to disclose whether they have been paid to post about the company or not?

When we see the contestants on Survivor winning rewards such as a cold Mountain Dew or a Pontiac Aztec, do we assume it’s because Mark Burnett actually prefers Mountain Dew over Coca-Cola and Pontiacs over Fords? When Red Beard at Lone Star 92.5 radio suggests drinking an ice cold Coors Light, do we assume he personally prefers Coors Light over say a Heineken or Shiner Bock? Not I. I know that this is product placement and they are being compensated by those companies to have their products shown or spoken of without them having to tell me so.

Even if paid bloggers must include a disclosure, I see paid blogging from an advertisers stand point to be a wonderful internet marketing solution. You can determine how much you are willing to pay, how many different posts you want as well as requiring the blogger to link to your Web site using your chosen keywords.

When comparing paid blogging to something like Yahoo’s Directory listing which costs $299 to submit and $299 annually I find paid blogging to not only be a bargain, but much more beneficial to the advertiser as well.

~Kimber

Google Audio and SEMPO Present in Dallas

2007-07-13T10:14:00.000-06:00

The Dallas / Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association (DFWSEM) will be hosting an event this Monday evening with co-presenters Jay Donovan from Google and Katie Donovan from Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO).

Katie Donovan will discuss the SEMPO Institute’s new educational certification for search engine marketers. She will also be presenting "Hire for Attitude; Train for Ability", highlighting best practices of hiring for Search Engine Marketing candidates for small businesses, corporations, and agencies.

Jay Donovan will talk about Google’s latest news on Google Audio, Google Print, and Google TV ads.

The event begins at 6:30 PM with networking, and the speakers will begin presentations at 7:00 PM. The event is open to all DFWSEM members and non-members, including marketing professionals, SEO’s, agencies, and the general public. The event is free for existing members, and $20 for non-members.

The meeting will be held at The Renaissance Dallas-Richardson Hotel located at 900 East Lookout Drive, Richardson, Texas 75081. View Map.

Hope to see you there!
~Kimber

Day Without Google? Exploring Alternative Search Engines

2007-06-12T10:06:00.000-06:00

Today shall be an interesting one. Day Without Google Begins! from Read/Write Web announces that today will be an experiment in searching. AltSearchEngines are seriously asking everybody to go one day without using any of the five major search engines; Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, or Ask.

The "ground rules" according to AltSearchEngines:

All day Tuesday, June 12th, don’t use any of the 5 major search engines.
Avoid Meta search engines, since most of them include the major search engines. (for this day only! Meta search engines are important; see the Great Debate Tuesday night!)
Likewise, the specialized vertical search engines may be too narrowly focused. (for this day only. It’s the vertical search engines that usually search the best; within their niche.)
Consider changing your homepage or downloading their toolbar. You can always uninstall everything and change back on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, leave a detailed comment under this post and share your experience with the rest of us. Which alt search engine did you chose? How would you rate the experience?

Can you survive without the big G? Sounds scary, huh? Well, I’m going to give it a shot.

AltSearchEngines provides a list of The Top 100 Alternative Search Engines to choose from. I tried out a couple of searches on both kartOO and Quintura, which tied for Search Engine of the Month. Both use an interface that incorporates tag clouds to refine your search terms. kartOO uses colorful graphics and presents results with thumbnail images of the sites, while Quintura presents a more traditional text based tag cloud.

Personally, after only a few searches on each, I think I prefer kartOO. This may be just because I got better results – better meaning my sites were ranking higher for my terms. ;)

I am going to try as hard as I can to steer clear of the big five today. Join me and other searchers today and explore the alternative search engines for just one day and share your experience here or over at AltSearchEngines.

~Kimber Cook

Microsoft Project Gatineau Coming Soon - Update from Microsoft

2007-05-11T10:54:00.000-06:00

As users of what used to be DeepMetrix's LiveStats analytics software, MasterLink was recently contacted by Microsoft about the upcoming launch of Microsoft Project Gatineau that we mentioned back in January. To sum the message up, Microsoft is planning on opening up the beta to Project Gatineau this summer (no specific date given). Also a feature of the new system that jumped out at me was a mention of demographic segmentation reporting in this new analytics solution. I am curious to hear more about this, but I guess all we can do is wait until they give us more info or give us something to look at.

Additionally, if you would like to give feedback to Microsoft on what you want out of their web analytics offerings, then you call fill out this survey. It looks like they have been advertising on the term "sitemeter" to get people to fill out this survey so go ahead and voice your opinions to help make Gatineau a better system.

Below is a copy of the email that we received:

"Dear DeepMetrix Customer,

We're excited to update you about Microsoft's activities since we acquired DeepMetrix.

Over the past year we've focused on building the next generation of Web analytics. We've reached a transitioning phase, and are now rolling out our new service. Because of this rollout, we're no longer updating DeepMetrix products and support services will discontinue on January 31, 2008.

You may continue to use the unsupported products after this date. We also want you to know that we'd like to work with LiveStats.XSP customers to plan a smooth transition to the new service for you and your customers.

This summer you'll be invited to try the beta of our new Web analytics service—Project Gatineau. Some of the highlights of the beta features include:

Click and visitor tracking
Marketing campaign reporting
Conversion tracking
Demographic and geographic segmentation
Paid and natural search analysis

As customers of DeepMetrix and Web analytics, Microsoft values your business and hopes you'll try our new Web analytics service.

We'll let you know more as further information becomes available. For general questions or comments regarding DeepMetrix products or Microsoft Project Gatineau, please e-mail us at dms@microsoft.com.

Sincerely,

The Microsoft Project Gatineau Team"

-Mark Barrera

tags: real estate training, buying a business

New Marketing Clients and other MasterLink News

2007-04-27T14:51:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to take a minute and mention some new clients that MasterLink is now working with. We are excited to be working with the following companies:

Blindstop.com - BlindStop’s website is a new concept in the window blind industry. The site offers discount window blinds, as well as blind repair parts.

TechRack Systems - TechRack carries full lines of server cabinets, server racks, computer cabinets, wire racks, printer stands, kvm switches, and more.

International Speakers Bureau - ISB is a speakers bureau that provides professional speakers, motivational public speakers, and other speakers primarily for business purposes.

Castle Hills - Castle Hills is a 2,500-acre master-planned residential development in the North Dallas area. Their site features home builders in Dallas and other information about the premier Dallas golf community in all of North Texas.

Carrington Laboratories - Carrington Laboratories, Inc. is an ISO 9001-certified, research-based, biopharmaceutical and consumer products company currently utilizing naturally-occurring complex carbohydrates to manufacture and market products for mucositis, radiation dermatitis, wound and oral care, as well as to manufacture and market the nutraceutical raw material Manapol® and cosmetic raw material Hydrapol™. Product categories include: Bandages & Dressings, Diabetic Care Products, First Aid Products, Health & Nutritional Supplements, Incontinence Care Products, Odor Eliminators, Oral & Dental Care Products, Personal Care Products, Radiation Therapy Care Products, and Wound Care Products.

Also, MasterLink has been working hard on a redesign of our own site. We should be launching it in the next month or two so check back for our new look and feel. The site will be easier to navigate and we are looking forward to getting it up and running!

Google Custom Search - The Future of Search? Or is it the Past?

2007-03-27T10:40:00.000-06:00

So I was reading Getting Link Love From Google Custom Search Engines at Search Engine Land, where Eric Ward discusses the link building opportunities and possible effects that Google Custom Search Engines (CSEs) may have on the future of search.

I was inspired to create a Custom Search Engine for one of our clients who is an industry leader and definitely an authority in its' market. Creating the CSE was simple and I am excited to see what kind of results and benefits we can achieve by incorporating this new CSE into our client's Internet Marketing efforts.

After I created the CSE, I was exploring the different options in the account and reading the Google Custom Search Blog about CSE's popular queries. I knew I wouldn't have any statistics yet, as I just created the search engine, but I was curious so I accessed the statistics page for my new CSE and was presented with the following screen:

1970? Huh? I thought this was the future of search? What's up with that Google?

Is it just me? Or is this a Google Co-op bug in all accounts for the new statistics feature?

Google's Local Search Onebox is Hurting My Head!

2007-03-14T12:36:00.000-06:00

As a web design company in Dallas (who was recently recognized as one of the largest) we deal with a lot of clients who provide services only in the Dallas area. Clients like Dallas Landscapers, Dallas New Homes, and Dallas Auto Body Shops as well as clients who provide services and products nationally.

With the implementation of Google Maps Onebox to Google’s search results I have been researching the implications of how this will affect our clients in the local market and it’s hurting my head!

Take for example Dallas Landscapers, Google’s SERPs show:

Our client is ranked organically #1 for the term, but does not appear in the Onebox. Why? What determines what gets displayed in the Onebox? Now, granted I did just submit the site to Google’s Local Business Center, so I am not sure if that will help at all. I have read speculations that the results are the top 3 that are closest to the center of the city.

So, since our company, MasterLink has been listed in Google’s Local Business Center for quite some time I searched for "Dallas Web Design" and was provided the following Onebox results:

Digging down into the maps further to find MasterLink I finally found us in the map below, we are "I" on this map. Now obviously we are not closest to the center of the city, but "A" and "C" certainly are not either. And what’s up with "J"? It sure looks pretty close to the center of the city, yet they are listed after us? My brain hurts!

Through my research I found that Bill Slawski from SEO by the Sea has created a Google Local Search Glossary where he provides:

"A collection of terms and definitions from a number of Google’s patent filings on Local Search (not everything discussed in a patent application has been incorporated into Google’s Local search - but the interesting thing about many of these patent filings is exploring whether or not they may have been)."

More brain pain for me.

Anybody out there have any insights into how this new Local Search and the Onebox in SERPs works?

I’m off to get some BC Headache Powder!

Posted by: Kimber Cook

MasterLink Featured in Website Magazine

2007-02-28T15:52:00.002-07:00

MasterLink's Director of Internet Marketing, Mark Barrera was interviewed and featured in the Cover Story of the February 2007 edition of Website Magazine, available now.

The article, "Going Social" focuses on social media and user-generated content on the internet. MasterLink's Director of Internet Marketing, Mark Barrera was contacted by Website Magazine for an interview for the article via the MasterLink MySpace profile. The interview focuses on the use of Myspace and YouTube as social networking for business purposes.

Website Magazine is a publication available both online and in print with a free subscription. Their mission is to help readers succeed by providing helpful and valuable information about online business trends, industry insights and best practices.

Microsoft adCenter beta site Upgrades Coming

2007-02-22T10:16:00.000-07:00

We just received this email from Microsoft adCenter:

Dear Content Ads pilot participant,

You can experience new time-saving features within the Microsoft adCenter beta site, which will update over the next few days.

What's new in the adCenter beta site?

Using the adCenter beta site is now easier and more efficient. The updates provide you with improved campaign management, navigation, and reporting. You can:

Save time importing campaigns. Directly import your campaign structure from other search advertising programs into adCenter. Update your existing campaigns, ad groups, ads, and keyword bids and match types using a single Microsoft Excel or CSV file.
Preview your ads on Live Search. Visualize how your ads will show up on Live Search with Ad Preview in the ad list.
Search within your campaigns. Full text search allows you to easily find ads, keywords, ad groups, accounts, or campaigns that contain all or part of a query string.
Manage keywords faster. Edit keywords in bulk to simultaneously change settings for all keywords or delete poor-performing keywords from your campaigns.
One click adCenter dataset downloads. Download your adCenter datasets into Excel with one click—making campaign management that much simpler.

Learn more about how you can save time with these updates—read the adCenter blog post and watch our webinar.
As a Content Ads pilot advertiser, you have a first-hand opportunity to use these time-saving improvements in the adCenter beta site. If you have any questions, please visit our support center.

Sincerely,

The Microsoft adCenter Team

Let's hope that these upgrades will do what they promise. I have not been very happy with the interface and the ability to manage keywords easily. Check out Shoemoney's rant to see what has everyone so upset with Microsoft adCenter

CPC Bidding for Site-Targeted Campaigns in Google Adwords

2007-02-14T07:42:00.000-07:00

We just received this email from Google inviting us to try their new CPC bidding for site-targeted campaigns:

Hello from the Google AdWords Team:
Because you're a valued AdWords advertiser, we'd like to invite you to beta test a new feature: cost-per-click (CPC) bidding for site-targeted campaigns.

Site targeting has always enabled AdWords advertisers to choose the individual sites where their ads can appear on the Google Content Network. But until now, advertisers could bid for site targeting only by paying for each thousand impressions (CPM). The feature we're testing will let advertisers set a price for each ad click instead.

Why try CPC bidding for site targeting?

More flexibility. Select the sites where your ads appear and choose the bidding option that fits your needs. If clicks are your goal, try CPC bidding so you pay only when you get the result you want.
Full control. Create new CPC site-targeted campaigns, or switch existing campaigns between CPC and CPM at any time. As always, you retain full control over your budgets and bids.

We hope you'll join this beta test. Your participation can help you reach customers more effectively, and you'll be helping us improve AdWords for all advertisers.

If you're interested, please fill out our short web form. Please note that we will select a limited number of advertisers from all that apply. We will contact you within the next few weeks if you're selected to participate.

To learn more about site targeting, please visit our Help Center.

Best wishes,

The Google AdWords Team

For more information on this beta test, check out the Inside Adwords blog.

February DFW Search Engine Marketing Association Meeting

2007-02-13T09:22:00.000-07:00

The next DFWSEM Association meeting will be held on Monday, February 19, at the Renaissance Hotel in Richardson. This will be an open networking and informational event that will follow up on sessions from Search Engine Watch Live in Dallas. Time is from 6:30 PM to 8 PM.

Meeting Place: Renaissance Dallas-Richardson Hotel located at 900 East Lookout Drive, Richardson, Texas 75081.

The hotel is in the Richardson Telecom Corridor, on the east side of 75 Central Expressway, approximately one mile south of George Bush Tollway. Symphony Room. Hotel Phone: 972-367-2000 Map: Renaissance Richardson

The Disarming of The Googlebomb

2007-01-31T14:42:00.000-07:00

The new anti-Googlebomb algo change has been getting a lot of attention lately. I have to admit that when the news first came out I was a bit concerned about how this would be handled.

Please tell me, GoogleMaster, that my countless hours of linkbuilding have not been deemed worthless.

As most of you know Google is always quite tight-lipped when it comes to discussing algorithm changes, so I spent some time researching this issue and after a little ~~push~~, er ~~begging~~ encouragment from my boss, I decided to write about what I think about all this hype.

As I stated, from an SEO perspective this news was quite earth shattering, just check out the industry blogs and forums and you'll see that everyone is talking about Googlebombs everywhere. I have however, decided to stay off from the Google conspiracy/paranoia bandwagon...for now anyway. We have yet to see any effects from this algo change for any of our or our clients' sites.

This is not to say that I completely agree with what Google is doing.

Here is a past statement regarding Google's stance on Googlebombing from a New York Times article in December 2003:

Craig Silverstein, Google's director for technology, says the company sees nothing wrong with the public using its search engine this way. No user is hurt, he said, because there is no clearly legitimate site for "miserable failure" being pushed aside.

Moreover, he said, Google's results were taking stock of the range of opinions that are expressed online. "We just reflect the opinion on the Web," he said, "for better or worse."

With the new algo in place Google is no longer going to "reflect the opinion of the web" (and those that use it). Although, we in the SEO industry are continually trying to manipulate the SERPs to our benefit, for Google to intentionally disable this type of popular opinion/commentary is a true detriment to the web and America's dwindling free speech rights. I understand Google's concerns over users thinking that the famous Googlebombs, such as George W. Bush's miserable failure, were of their own opinion, which is partly why they chose to impliment the change, according to Matt Cutt's , Google Engineer. However, by implimenting this change are they now not editing (or more presicely censoring) others' opinions instead?

There have been many theories on how Google is implimenting this new anti-Googlebomb algo. However Matt Cutts says on his blog, "I don’t think we’re going to get into discussing the internals of the Googlebomb algorithm other than to say that it’s due to improved link analysis".

"Improved link analysis"

This is not saying they are discounting huge numbers of backlinks. What I have taken from this is the possibility that if the target URL has tons of "off-page" optimization for a certain keyphrase, but very little or no "on-page" optimization for that same keyphrase, then it might be considered a Googlebomb. That is to say, backlinks which have anchor text not related to the content of the URL they are directing to, or the landing page, shall be completely ignored, or discounted, by the new algorithm changes.

Matt also explains the scope of the anti-Googlebomb algo on his blog:

Here’s a good way to think of the algorithm. If queries were sand, and Google’s daily queries was a big pile of sand, this algorithm would affect less than a couple hundred grains of sand. It really does have a very limited scope and doesn’t affect a large fraction of queries. The intent of the algorithm is to minimize the impact of "true" Googlebombs, which occur when someone is causing someone else's page to rank for stuff that they wouldn't want to rank for themselves.

Here's to hoping my grains of sand remain in Google's unaffected sand pile! ;)

While pouring over the many comments over at Matt Cutts blog, I found that user "jonydzine" pretty much took the words right out of my mouth:

That’s good to know… but I am a bit torn. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I think these kind of things are actually good. I mean people will always prank and find a way to prank, and most of these instances that I’ve seen of Googlebombing, I think people need to get a sense of humor, including some presidents (I will not name names, of course). I’m sure that in some sense of abuse, it is good that this thing not go unchecked. However, I hate to see one of the last forms of "free" speech become a bit more sterile. Isn’t it American to sign the declaration of independence in extremely large letters to add insult to the King? Didn’t we toss a boat full of tea back into a harbor a while back? Just seems that good ol’ hooliganism and shenanigans to get a point across or to chide people to let you know what they think is a very American tradition and despite what good it may do to sterilize the net of abuse, a part of me is sad… :)
And you know… some big fella once said "there is no such thing as BAD publicity…" of course, I don’t think he was a politician.
So there ya go, thanks Matt and Google, for making us all a bit less evil…"

Yahoo Updating Index and Algorithm | Outperforming Google?

2007-01-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

I just read at the Yahoo! Search Blog that they are in the process of making some changes to their search results. Many people may see great changes in rankings.

I have been watching Yahoo a lot more closely lately and it seems to me that their algorithm is getting much better. Many people have complained that Yahoo has too much spam in their results. I personally think they are doing a MUCH better job at combating spam these days. Just take a look at the results for Viagra on Google and Yahoo.

On Google, the search results for Viagra contain 5/10 pages on page 1 that are .edu domains that have had Viagra spam pages "injected" into the site and link in to sites that sell Viagra online from iffy sources. Yahoo, on the other hand has MUCH more relevant sites in its first page results. All of the sites in Yahoo take you to medical and government sites that have factual information about the drug. All of these sites are trusted sites with non-spam results.

While lately it seems that everyone is bashing Yahoo as a company, I think that they are doing great things with their search algorithm. Hopefully people will start to realize this and they can get going in the right direction and increase their share of searches in the marketplace.

Tags: real estate investing, real estate blog

Microsoft Analytics Solution 'Gatineau' to Compete with Google Analytics

2007-01-15T16:50:00.000-07:00

I recently stumbled across a post by Ian Thomas that confirms that Microsoft is working on its own analytics software - a modified version of the analytics software created by DeepMetrix (who was purchased by Microsoft last year).

We attended a presentation last year and first reported about adCenter's 3.0 beta upgrades. During this presentation, I asked about Microsoft developing an analytics solution for its advertisers. At that time, we were only told that the adLabs group was working on something but no more information was provided.

Now, we are sure that Microsoft is working on this and has codenamed this analytics project 'Gatineau' (note- this link will not allow you to login or register as it has not even reached Beta stages). Gatineau is the name of a city in Canada that at one time housed the headquarters for DeepMetrix.

Not much else has been released at this time, but expect that this should launch hopefully before the end of the year. I do expect the system to fully integrate your adCenter data for advanced tracking.

Now, on to the other product we asked Microsoft about - When are we going to see a publisher network come out of adCenter so that advertisers can get increased exposure, and publishers can get some money?!?

Apple iPhone, Apple TV & Xbox IPTV - Marketers Take Notice!

2007-01-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

Most posts on our blog deal with web design or Internet marketing news, but I felt that with all the news announcements about new technology products this week, a few of them were worth mentioning. Why? Because, they have more to do with Internet marketing than first meets the eye.

The biggest news of the week is that Apple Inc. (yep, they dropped "Computer" from their name) announced a new cell phone that also doubles as an iPod. They are calling it the iPhone even though Cisco owns the trademark on that name (and as I expected the lawsuit has been filed). Now, I am sure that Apple was aware that this would happen because I have been reading for weeks that Cisco had the trademark. So, one wonders if Apple did this to stir up more hype around the product, settle the suit, and pick a new name - in the hopes that this would help sell more phones. Or maybe, they actually believe somehow that Cisco had no write to trademark the name in the first place for some reason.

Other big news is that Apple introduced its Apple TV. This allows you to view on your television any media that is on your computer. So now, any videos you download via their iTunes can be watched on your television instead of only your computer monitor. I personally don't think this product will last too many years because most the the new HD-TVs being sold have computer inputs. I myself already have my TV and computer linked so that I can view my computer media files on my TV, and I didn't have to pay $299, my TV had the input so I paid $10 for a simple cable. I think the only people that need this box are the ones with non-HD televisions but those are be gone by February of 2008 as their signals will be cut off.

In related news, Microsoft announced that you can now use your Xbox to watch television via your internet connection on the new IPTV enabled Xbox. The offering is expected to deliver world-class TV experiences such as digital video recording capabilities, with gaming, movie viewing, and even voice and video communications.

So What How Does This Affect Internet Marketing?

These new products are the future of the platform that media will be delivered to consumers. More and more consumers are gaining more ways to be exposed to digital marketing. The cable networks are being pushed out by new IPTV technology and this could changes the way we watch commercials. The benefits of a television, DVR, and the Internet are all merging into one. Newspapers are already feeling this crunch on their industry as consumers move to the Internet to read their news AS it happens, not the next day.

More people are looking for their cell phones to do more such as play music, text, surf the web and more. Phones are essentially becoming miniature laptops. I know I just bought a Samsung Blackjack and it has been a life saver for checking email and surfing the web. Using cell phones combined with GPS technology, local advertisers will be pushing out ads to cell phones in ways never previously imagined via text and other alerts.

We are seeing a massive media convergence that is being adopted by consumers and is surely the wave of the future. So, pay attention, learn all you can, and make sure that you are using every means possible to reach prospective customers.

A Look Back at 2006

2006-12-22T12:29:00.000-07:00

I would first like to wish everyone the happiest of holidays!

Now that the year is coming to the end, I thought I would do a post that looks back at all of the things that we covered in our blog. While we didn't blog as much as I had hoped, there were some good things that came out of 2006. In 2007, our blog will become a lot more active so please sign up for our RSS feed and get ready for a great year ahead.

Here is a list of all the different topics that we covered beginning in February of this year in chronological order:

Relative or Absolute Links for SEO?

2006-12-12T10:21:00.000-07:00

For those who need a refresher, an absolute link is a link where the full URL is given in the link such as "a href=http://www.masterlink.com/news.cfm" whereas a relative link only provides the name of the folder/file such as "a href="news.cfm".

Now, while most people have been taught to just use relative links, it is actually not the best for both search engines and preventing people from scraping your site content. Some people tend to use relative links because the shorter code can decrease a page's download time and decrease the amount of typing they do. However, a millisecond is about all that is saved this was as far as load time and the majority of users these days are not on a 14K dial-up anymore.

At the Search Engine Strategies conference in Chicago last week there was a Q&A session that had top engineers from MSN, Google, Yahoo & Ask as well as other top figures in the SEO world. A question was posed as to which type of links were preferred, all of the search engines agreed that an absolute link is the way to go. I agree with them not just because they are the experts but because their reasoning makes sense.

People who go to a site by typing in the URL (although many people are just typing the url into a google search and then clicking the first result) may enter the www or may not (e.g. www.masterlink.com vs masterlink.com). To a user, either one makes sense as they see the pages the same. Now, when search engines crawl links they don't want to crawl the same thing over and over again. If they crawl a link to the non www site, then every page linked from there (if it has relative links) will keep the spider on the same non www URL. Now, when they crawl through a link with the www in front of the domain - they see this as a different page and will index all pages again. Essentially they are giving each page a rank twice and crawling twice as much.

So, if you put all absolute links and a spider comes in from a link that doesn't have the www, you will guide them back to the www pages and then only rank those pages and save them the time of crawling a site twice or more. This also stops what is called PageRank bleed - meaning that the one page gets all the juice and isn't spread across two versions (the www & non www) of the same page. This is can actually be seen on our site (no, we are not perfect here, but always work to improve ourselves) if you check the PageRank of http://masterlink.com/news.cfm and http://www.masterlink.com/news.cfm.

Please follow this link and paste each of the above URLs into the box to see the difference in ranks.

Another thing that should be done is for all requests for a website without the www to be redirected to the www version of the site. So if I typed in masterlink.com there would be a 301 redirect to www.masterlink.com which is just a back up guarantee that they hit the right pages. Search engines can sometimes still get mixed up so this solves this canonicalization problem.

Now, some of this may sound crazy, I agree to an extent, but ultimately search engines drive the majority of Internet traffic (~87%) so playing by their rules can only enhance the opportunity for good rankings.

"nofollow" - Does it Really Work Like Google Claims?

2006-11-28T17:36:00.000-07:00

I am not one to usually try to stir up debate or call the search engines out for misleading people, but I still can't figure out what a "nofollow" tag REALLY does. That being said, I know what it SUPPOSEDLY does, but there is data to contradict this claim. After reviewing an experiment I did, it seems that Yahoo and MSN are obeying the rules, but Google, who was first to encourage the use of this tag is not doing what people think it is.

For those of you who do not know what the "nofollow" tag does, here is a quote from Search Engine Watch:

"If Google sees nofollow as part of a link, it will:

NOT follow through to that page.
NOT count the link in calculating PageRank link popularity scores.
NOT count the anchor text in determining what terms the page being linked to is relevant for."

Now, I did a little experiment that anyone can do (some may call it blackhat - but to me it is just research) to test whether these benefits of the nofollow tag actually work in each of the 3 major search engines.

What I did was go to the AskDaveTaylor.com blog and found an article to which I posted a comment. I chose this site due to its strong page rank and its level of trust in the search engines as seen by his many rankings - thanks Dave :-). The post that I left is under the name of "Mark Warranty Peterson," just a random name with a keyword in it and linked to the site "theautoclub.com". Now, since the comments are on this blog are treated with the rel="nofollow" tag, you would assume that none of the 3 rules of nofollow as outlined above would be disproven.

Ok, so here it is a few months later and the page that I left the post on has a PR5 and the SE algorithms have all had time to fully evaluate this page. So, I went in and did an exact search in Google, Yahoo and MSN for "Mark Warranty Peterson". Now, one would think that the only page that would show up in the results would be for the page in which the post was left. Well, the only search engine that lived up to this belief is the infamous Microsoft Live Search. Microsoft also did not include the page with the post in a backlink check to theautoclub.com

Yahoo's results showed the page of the post and one spammer page. A backlink check of the domain (theautoclub.com) in Yahoo did, however, include the page from the post that had the nofollow tag.

What did Google show? Hmm.....this is where I was VERY SURPRISED. The results show the page with the post on it, AND the page to which the nofollow link points! They did not show this page in a backlink check, but when does Google ever show many links there anyways. Now, the other interesting thing theautoclub.com is now ranked #74 for "Mark Warranty Peterson" (edit: now showing at #70 on page 7). Notice that this is a broad match for this term and not an exact match query and the site does not have the word Peterson anywhere in the whole site. I then decided to check the cache of the page after finding it at #74. What did Google have to say about the search query?

"These terms only appear in links pointing to this page: mark peterson"

Now, if I read correctly, according to a Google post, ''when Google sees the attribute (rel='nofollow') on hyperlinks, those links won't get any credit when we rank websites in our search results." Well, this seems to be pretty good proof that this isn't true. I also have the server logs to show that Google has crawled through this link to the destination website in the link with the nofollow. That disproves that Google will "NOT follow through to that page."

Now, I am pretty sure that I am not the only person that has done this test and seen the results. This must explain why I haven't seen a decline in comment spam on my blogs as it looks like the "link condom" is broken...

So, can somebody help me out and explain exactly how Google REALLY treats the nofollow tag?

Digg it!

My Top 10 Reasons to be Thankful for my Job at an SEO Company

2006-11-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

I am fairly new to the SEO game and being Thanksgiving week, I thought I would follow up my "Why I Love My Job in SEO" blog with my personal top ten reasons to be thankful for my job at an SEO Company.

10. I am thankful for being in an industry that is constantly changing, each day is new and different and I am continually learning.

9. I am thankful for tools like Web Position, Google Analytics and Digital Point for making my job easier.

8. I am thankful for blogs and forums, like SEOmoz and WebProWorld, where industry experts are eager to share their knowledge with newbies like me.

7. I am thankful for MasterLink’s own experts; Mike Shaffer for his technical expertise, and Scott Peterson for his design expertise.

6. I am thankful for Firefox and tabbed browsing! (And also some very useful extensions.)

5. I am thankful for Clif Thompson being hired on to join our team as PPC Specialist. (I am terrible with numbers!)

4. I am thankful for never having to deal with the Google sandbox. (Knock on wood.)

3. I am thankful for advanced searches, like "linkdomain:" for link building strategies. (Now if only Google would play nice with me.)

2. I am thankful for Mark Barrera, my boss, teacher, mentor and friend. I have learned so much from him and he makes everyday of work fun.

1. I am thankful for MasterLink and Brenda Molloy for giving me a chance with a job in SEO when I had relatively no knowledge of SEO only 8 months ago.

Why I Love My Job in SEO

2006-11-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

I have a crazy love for and collect two things, monkeys (not live ones, of course, though that would be kinda cool) and kaleidoscopes. Monkeys are just so fun, I smile every time I see one. I love kaleidoscopes because they are so beautiful to look at the ever-changing colors and patterns. You will never see the exact same design twice in a kaleidoscope and can never predict what pattern you will see at the next rotation.

So, what does this have to do with why I love my job in SEO? Well, it reminds me a lot of my two favorite things in several ways.

How does my job in SEO remind me of monkeys, besides the fact that Ask.com is using monkeys in their new commercials? Well, SEO is fun. Monkeys are fun. My job can also sometimes be quite tedious. Take yesterday for example; I spent the majority of my day doing link building for a client. Now, this reminds me of monkeys simply because I believe I could train a monkey to do link building for me. Search, copy, paste, repeat. (Now if only I did collect live monkeys, I'd be set!)

As for kaleidoscopes my job in SEO reminds me of them because it too is ever-changing. Yesterday, I was link building. Today I am blogging and writing articles and press releases for clients. Tomorrow, I may be doing some keyword research or on page optimization for another client. Another similarity between kaleidoscopes and SEO: the ever-changing SERPs and search engine algorithms. You may find your site ranking well for a particular term one day and fall back down the following day. Like a kaleidoscope you can never predict what results you will get.

My job in SEO, like monkeys, is fun even though sometimes it can include some tedious monkey-work. My job in SEO, like kaleidoscopes, is ever-changing; and that is a beautiful thing.

Hitwise Releases Top 10 Search Terms in 10 Categories

2006-11-13T13:53:00.000-07:00

From ClickZ: Below, the top 10 search terms by search volume. Data are provided by Hitwise.

Top 10 Search Terms by Category, Four Weeks Ending October 28, 2006 (%)
IT and Internet		Automotive Manufacturers
Search Term	Search Volume	Search Term	Search Volume
paypal	4.30	ebay	1.08
paypal.com	1.09	kelly blue book	1.03
people search	0.89	used cars	0.64
white pages	0.77	ebay motors	0.62
www.paypal.com	0.69	autotrader	0.58
pay pal	0.52	auto trader	0.54
mapquest	0.50	nascar	0.51
experian	0.46	cars.com	0.49
neteller	0.38	nascar.com	0.46
ebay	0.27	toyota	0.42
Movies		Internet Advertising
Search Term	Search Volume	Search Term	Search Volume
imdb	1.11	free samples	0.71
netflix	1.02	free stuff	0.46
movies	0.66	free	0.34
blockbuster	0.60	adwords	0.34
fandango	0.33	unclaimed money	0.33
netflix.com	0.28	work from home	0.31
saw 3	0.27	ares	0.26
harry potter	0.21	napster	0.25
hollywood video	0.21	www.smcorp.com	0.25
movie times	0.17	work at home	0.24
Food and Beverage Brands and Manufacturers		Pharmaceutical and Medical Products
Search Term	Search Volume	Search Term	Search Volume
pizza hut	1.77	lexapro	0.95
mcdonalds	1.48	cymbalta	0.57
starbucks	1.25	zoloft	0.48
www.maxwellhouse.com	0.61	viagra	0.40
candystand	0.61	pfizer	0.36
subway	0.55	herpes	0.35
betty crocker	0.51	xanax	0.34
candystand.com	0.50	cialis	0.29
burger king	0.48	depression	0.29
dominos pizza	0.48	merck	0.28
Blogs and Personal Web Sites		Broadcast Media
Search Term	Search Volume	Search Term	Search Volume
xanga	0.99	cnn	2.61
myspace	0.76	cnn.com	1.13
yahoo 360	0.48	msnbc	1.12
xanga.com	0.46	news	0.90
livejournal	0.42	fox news	0.82
www.xanga.com	0.40	sara evans	0.72
myspace.com	0.37	www.cnn.com	0.45
perez hilton	0.28	bbc	0.43
360	0.22	abc news	0.42
dailykos	0.22	bbc news	0.34
Shopping Rewards and Directories		Travel Destinations and Accommodations
Search Term	Search Volume	Search Term	Search Volume
consumer reports	0.22	hotels	0.56
halloween costumes	0.14	hotels.com	0.50
coupons	0.12	holiday inn	0.32
webkinz	0.10	disneyland	0.22
froogle	0.09	las vegas	0.18
free stuff	0.09	best western	0.17
mycokerewards.com	0.08	hampton inn	0.16
free samples	0.08	motel 6	0.15
www.webkinz.com	0.06	disney world	0.15
myrewardzone.com	0.06	days inn	0.15

View: Top 10 Search Terms by Category, Four Weeks Ending September 30, 2006

Hitwise monitors how more than 25 million Internet users interact with over 500,000 Web sites across 160 industry categories. It collects Internet usage information through a combination of ISP data partnerships and opt-in panels. Data are collected in accordance with local and international privacy legislation and are audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Yahoo Launches New Search Advertising Platform: “Panama”

2006-10-18T11:05:00.000-06:00

Yahoo has begun converting advertisers to their new Panama ad system. Yahoo previously announced they were going to delay the launch of Panama earlier this year. Advertisers will be migrating to the new system in stages via an invite from Yahoo over the remainder of this year and early next year; however users may request an early upgrade from Yahoo.

Yahoo made the announcement after it said its quarterly profit slipped 38 percent and also forecast that fourth-quarter revenue will be below analyst expectations. The announcement immediately impacted Yahoo's stock price, and may have implications for Google as well.

Panama's new design promises to be more intuitive with the addition of Ajax and improved graphical interfaces. Also included in the new release is instant activation of keywords and enhanced forecasting features. Andy Beal at Marketing Pilgrim provides a great description of the new Yahoo Search Marketing system along with screenshots of the improved interface.

Yahoo also plans to change the ad ranking algorithm, taking ad quality into account as well as bids, similar to how Google Adwords currently works. This change will not be rolled out until early next year.

I, myself am extremely excited about the launch of Panama and cannot wait until we receive our account upgrade invite so I can begin using the new and improved features.

Yahoo and Google Fall Updates

2006-10-12T09:48:00.000-06:00

Yahoo has announced that rolled out an index update on October 10, 2006. Marketers should notice a change in some rankings and a shuffle of the pages in the index.

Matt Cutts, the well known engineer at Google, has also announced some updates going on at Google. Google just recently exported PageRank info, so people should be seeing some changes in PR as viewed in the Google toolbar. The rest of the changes at Google are infrastructure changes and deal with the Supplemental results and making sure that "site:" queries are more accurate. Google has also pushed out new "link:" query information to reflect more backlinks pointing at sites.

I also want to mention the recent upgrades to Yahoo's Site Explorer. This program is a simpler and less enhanced version of Google's Sitemaps program but is improving slowly. Check it out and watch for future enhancements. I also recommend converting your Google Sitemap to a Yahoo Sitemap and submitting it to Yahoo.

-Mark B

Accessibility and Web Design

2006-09-22T09:19:00.000-06:00

Recently, a federal judge issued a ruling that is shaking up the way that websites are designed. The ruling lets a lawsuit by the National Federation of the Blind against Target Corp. to proceed. This does not mean that Target has lost the suit, only that the case would not be dismissed and would proceed. The suit charges that Target’s website is inaccessible to the blind and therefore violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and several California laws designed to protect the disabled.

Targets argument for dismissal was that accessibility only applies to physical locations and not websites. The court disagreed saying that all services must be accessible to “persons with disabilities.”

How Does a Website Become Accessible to the Blind?

People who are blind commonly use text to speech software that dictates the contents of a website to them. This means that any images on a website that have text in them won’t be read by the speech software. For example, if you look at this site that sells yamaha parts you will notice that the navigation on the left has text that is presented as an image. There is a way to label the picture with any text you want so that a speech reader can speak to the contents of the image. This is done using an “Alt” tag. In the case of the Yamaha site, each image would need to be alt tagged with the same text that is contained in the image. So for the “buy accessories online” link, the code would have “alt=’buy accessories online’”. This way, a blind user would know to click that link if they are wanting to buy the accessories. Without these tags, the user would have to navigate to each page and hope that there is text on that page to tell them what the page is about.

A good example of proper alt tagging can be seen at the site of an extended auto warranty company. If you point your mouse over one of the green tabs that links to more info on the warranties, you alt text will appear (only in Internet Explorer, Firefox users must right click to view image properties). The text in the alt tag should reflect where the image link will take you in the site. Every image on this page has an alt tag provided.

How Does This Affect My Search Rankings?

Search engines act in a similar fashion to text to speech software because the search engine spiders that read your web page also cannot read text in images or decipher what the image contains. By using the alt tag you are able to tell the search engine what exactly is in the picture. Search engines also use this data to better help them when indexing images into their image search engines (images.google.com, search.yahoo.com/images & others).

When linking to a specific page, the search engines prefer that you use text, so that they can tell what the content of the page being linked to is about. Essentially, it is like voting for a page to rank well for a keyword in their search rankings using the text in the link. For example, if I wanted to link to the Complete Landsculpture site, I would use the text “Dallas landscape design“. If I used their logo to link to them, the search engines would see the link as having no text associated, so it would be like a vote without giving the site credit for the content it contains. This is why you need to alt tag the image with same text “Dallas landscape design” or something similar so that the search engines then know that that site is about landscape design. This will help to rank that site better for the text used either in the text link or as an alt tag.
You may be wondering, why not just stuff every image alt tag with keywords to rank better for those terms. The answer is that the search engines have evolved and can detect this keyword spamming. A rule of hand is to use a phrase less than 4 words to describe the image and don’t stuff keywords into the tag. Many people will tell you that the search engines don’t rank on alt tags but I can say that I have seen sites with only images show up in search results and the description that Google displayed used text found only in the alt tags.

How Can I See My Site Like a Text to Speech Reader or a Search Engine?

There are a few ways to make sure your site is readable to both the search engines and to people with disabilities. The first is to use a website standards validation tool. This also makes sure your site can be viewed properly in all browsers. All you do is put in the URL of the page you want to check and they will create a report with all errors. If you want to see how your site actually looks to search engines and browsers for the disabled you can use the SEO Browser tool or the Lynx text browser. This will strip all of the CSS styles and Images out of your site so you can view it at its most simple form.

For more in-depth analysis of the things you need to consider to make a site ADA compliant please click here.

The Internet Marketers Creed

2006-09-01T18:40:00.000-06:00

Over at The ComTech News Blog Jack Spirko, who served in the US Army Airborne during the First Gulf War, has posted The Internet Marketers Creed. Jack has been involved in Internet marketing for 10 years and I can speak to his abilities due to a time in which we worked together. His post speaks to the passion and thought processes of interactive marketers and even printed a copy to hang by my desk.

This creed is a kickback to the Marine Corps Rifleman's Creed as heard in the opening of the classic movie Full Metal Jacket. This creed by Jack speaks to all Internet marketers who truly have a passion for the art and science of Internet marketing.

Check it out and leave your comments to a guy who gave a bit of his life to serve our country!

Matt Cutts Video Blogs Some SEO Answers

2006-08-01T09:12:00.000-06:00

Matt Cutts, a now famous engineer at Google, has posted six videos on Google Video answering different questions about SEO and Google's ranking methods. He posted the first three and the last three at his blog.

* Session 1: Including qualities of a good site.
* Session 2: Including some SEO Myths.
* Session 3: Should you Optimize for Search Engines or for Users?
* Session 4: Static vs Dynamic URLs, organic geotargeting, sitemaps reporting
* Session 5: 301s with acquired domains, split testing, site architecture
* Session 6: All about Supplemental Results

Overall, this information can be very beneficial when wanting to adhere to the Google Webmaster Quality Guidlines.

-Mark Barrera

An Intern's View on Search Engine Optimization

2006-08-01T09:09:00.000-06:00

Coming to MasterLink this summer, the only thing I knew about Search Engine Optimization is that it impressed people to hear the title, even if they had no clue what it meant. Learning the ropes of SEO under Mark Barrera it all started to come together.

My first lesson was that companies do not pay for top rankings in Google, they had to earn them and that is what our job is as search engine marketers. My second lesson and maybe the most important was that SEO takes time. This is the first thing MasterLink tells their potential clients so they fully understand what to expect. This I have found to be true and backed by all the books I have read on the subject. My advice there would be to anyone working with a company who has given them false hope by telling them changes will happen instantly, we all know that Rome was not built in a day.

Another lesson I learned early on was that the industry is constantly changing. What is working for you today may not be the case tomorrow. Thus following changes in the industry from sites such as SearchEngineWatch is very necessary.

Something that caught me by surprise was that search engines such as Google, MSN, and Yahoo must know that your site exists. Meaning you can’t just slap your site up on the World Wide Web and have instant exposure to millions of people. What a sad and disillusioned soul I was, it’s pertinent that your page have quality site maps submitted to each search engine so they know exactly what you or your company is about.

The more tedious work involves pay per click campaigns. There is a lot going on and you must be at the top of your game to manage a successful PPC campaign. You have to look at many pieces such as conversion rates, click through ratios, impressions, and the average cost per click to inform you as to what you’re doing well and what you should do differently. This part of SEO is a little overwhelming when first introduced to, and time will make it easier, or at least I hope.

Aside from that SEO is overall a very fun and exciting industry to be a part of because it is constantly changing, never boring and always keeps you on your toes. Every day is different!

These are just a few of the many lessons I have learned during my short stint with MasterLink which goes to show that SEO is something that takes constant attention and top priority.

-Stuart Frazier
SEO Intern

Yahoo Delay's Search Marketing Upgrade

2006-07-21T09:48:00.000-06:00

Yahoo’s search marketing upgrade, code-named Project Panama, won’t arrive until at least the end of the year according to Yahoo Chairman and CEO, Terry Semel.

The upgrade is expected to bring Yahoo's pay per click model more in line with Google's. With Panama ads placement will be based on price and relevancy of ad. Currently, Yahoo places a paid ad solely based on the amount you are willing to pay for the keyword. The new algorithm will be similar to how Google AdWords works.

Yahoo had planned to release the upgrade in the third quarter, but Semel said during the company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday that the company was delaying the release of Panama to prevent disruption in ad purchasing and management during the holiday season.

"We think this is the right decision for ensuring the most successful commercial launch possible," he said, adding that we should expect to start using the upgrade in 2007.

Benefits of Email Marketing

2006-07-06T15:06:00.000-06:00

Whatever kind of business you are in, success and profitability start with marketing. Driving interest in your products and / or services is the number one goal for any company.

E-mail marketing is one of the most basic and effective marketing tools available today. It's easy, affordable, direct, and powerful. When you add e-mail to your marketing plan, you spend less time, money and resources than with traditional marketing (ie: direct mail or print advertising). You can have your time-sensitive information sent in minutes, not days or weeks.
E-mail marketing also allows you to proactively communicate with both existing customers and prospects instead of quietly waiting for them to return to your website, visit your store or office, or call you on the phone.

E-mail marketing will also allow you to communicate more information, more often. Your communications can include newsletters, preferred customer promotions, sale notifications, new service announcements, event invitations, surveys and more.

With e-mail marketing you can see the results of your efforts instantly. The benefits obtained from most types of marketing and advertising are difficult to measure. With e-mail marketing, however, you can easily measure the number of e-mails delivered, e-mails opened, bounce backs, unsubscribes and click-through rates.

You can also tell who opened your e-mail, which links in your message resulted in the most clicks, who clicked on each link and how your contacts respond to surveys. All of this practical information can help you send targeted campaigns to those most likely to respond to your offer, significantly improving your results moving forward.

Yahoo PPC and Microsoft Search Deal Comes to an End Today

2006-06-30T08:45:00.000-06:00

As previously reported, the agreement where Yahoo Sponsored Listings were being shown alongside search results in MSN will be coming to an end today. The end of this agreement was announced when MSN began running its MSN adCenter beta campaign earlier this year. MSN gradually reduced the percentage of sponsored ads being shown by Yahoo on its search listings and this transition to its own sponsored ads will be complete today. This change only affects US advertisers as non-US markets will still have Yahoo ads shown alongside the MSN results until adCenter is rolled out worldwide. The official announcement from Yahoo can be seen here.

This change should not cause much change for Yahoo Search Marketing clients as the transition has been gradual. Many accounts have noticed a decrease in their impressions as a result of not being shown alongside MSN search results. For advertisers looking to purchase sponsored listings in Microsoft's new adCenter advertising platform can visit here or give MasterLink a call!

-Mark Barrera

Adwords PPC Advertisers Have Another Required Task

2006-06-12T16:00:00.000-06:00

If you are a current Google Adwords advertiser or are thinking about joining the Adwords program, take notice of recent changes by Google.

Recently Google displayed a notice in all Adwords accounts notifying advertisers of a change in the terms of service and a change in the way an ad's quality score is determined.

In the new Adwords terms of service it states that the price an advertiser now pays is partially determined by the relevance of the landing page. Google will now be sending spiders to crawl the landing pages and check for the presence of keyword material that is relevant to the term that the searcher intially used.

What does this mean?

This means that you can most likely no longer simply pick a page in your site to send traffic to any more. The better targeted your landing page is, the less you will pay for each click. This can mean big savings for large ppc campaigns. Web site owners must now put up the initial investment needed for the creation of optimized landing pages in order to achieve long term savings.

I am pleased that Google has implemented this requirement as it rewards the advertisers who already knew the importance of post click marketing and the value of a properly optimized landing page. If you need help creating landing pages, choose a web design and internet marketing firm that is able to understand all aspects of proper on page optimization as well as in depth knowledge of the PPC advertising programs.

-Mark Barrera
PPC Management and Consulting

Blogging Below the Belt - Corporate Blog Support Services

2006-05-26T11:16:00.000-06:00

By Michael L. Clark

“Unless you’re a parent, you really can’t understand what I’m going through.” Ever heard that? The truth behind those simple words lies in one’s inability to identify experientially with another. For companies, however, the mantra they fear repeating may be, “Unless you’ve been targeted by attack blogs, you can’t possibly understand.”

Blogs began several years ago as a tool for online diaries. Today, they are the primary method for brand-bashing, personal attacks, political extremism and smear campaigns. With an estimated worldwide audience of 900 million, millions of blogs already in existence, and a hundred thousand new blogs created daily, the rapidly expanding blogosphere serves as both an advertiser’s dream and a marketing nightmare – depending on the nature of information that’s being promoted.

The blend of immense reach and legal immunity makes a potent recipe for corporate character assassination. Scores of often anonymous, virulent “investigative” and “factual” articles have crippled and even destroyed businesses, and the intoxicating power of negative “press” will only intensify. Some attack blogs are produced by individuals with an agenda, others by companies criticizing their competitors, while still others exist for the sole purpose of creating a stir. Regardless of the source, attack blogs are a reality that must be addressed by companies both small and large.

If a blogger wants to initiate an attack against your company, he has only to sit at a keyboard. However, MasterLink has developed a system of proactive, aggressive defense. The MasterLink Standard Blog Support Services program consists of 5 Levels, all at competitive investment pricing:

• Level I – Initial Internet Scan and Response
• Level II – Monthly Blog Service
• Level III – Third Party Blog Production
• Level IV – Company Blog Creation and Operation
• Level V – Forensic Blog Research/ Legal Review

Click here for details and subscriptions.

Blogs are here to stay. Once the attacks begin, companies can risk being blacklisted and having reputations shattered, or refuse to live in fear and fight smears with facts and expertise.

Yahoo Undergoing a Major Overhaul

2006-05-16T11:00:00.000-06:00

Yahoo has launched a new look to its homepage at http://www.yahoo.com. The new design has blended different programming languages by seamlessly integrating AJAX, Java, and HTML to create an easy to navigate and well laid out homepage.

Yahoo is the world's most visited page followed by Google, MSN, Baidu (the most popular web search engine in China), Yahoo Japan, and the fast growing Myspace. In the U.S. Yahoo is beating out Google for page views while Myspace has the third largest following.

An interview was conducted by with Yahoo! Chief Product Officer Ash Patel and Vice President of Front Doors Tapan Bhat on the features that have been added and the reasoning behind all of the changes. The podcast is available here.

Yahoo has added access to more content from the homepage and has started to emphasize videos, photos and multimedia. Yahoo is recognizing that many people are using broadband connections and is attempting to satisfy these users needs for multimedia rich websites.

The homepage is still in beta testing and no timeline has been presented for complete removal of the old homepage. Overall, I like the look and feel of the site and am glad that Yahoo has not given up on satisfying its users. Their last overhaul was in September of 2004, so it was time for a change.

-Mark Barrera

Free Yahoo Sitemap Creator: Converts Google Sitemap to Yahoo

2006-05-12T11:57:00.000-06:00

Mike Shaffer here at MasterLink has created a neat tool that allows you to convert your Google Sitemap to a Yahoo Sitemap compatible format, in this case a text file. A text sitemap is simply a list of the URLs of your site in the form of a text file. These can then be submitted to search engines such as Yahoo! to notify them that all the pages exist and by doing so invites their spider to visit.

Why do I need a Yahoo Sitemap?

Unless your pages are indexed in the search engines they can't send you the free visitors you are all looking for.

Fortunately, the search engines want your content too and there are a number of ways you can help them, which they encourage you to do - by creating sitemaps of your website. Sitemaps created for the various search engines will enable these search engines' spiders to crawl faster, more systematically, and more extensively into your website's pages.

By doing so, you get the maximum exposure you can. Such exposure will boost your pride in having your pages viewed, read, and used by more and more visitors the way you intended them to. On the financial aspect, the more visitors your website gets, the higher your website's potential advertising value.

Please let us know what you think of our Free Yahoo Sitemap Creator.

Click here to use the MasterLink Yahoo Sitemap creator:

-Mark Barrera
SEO Specialist

MSN adCenter Launches; MSN Contextual Advertising Coming Soon

2006-05-04T10:00:00.000-06:00

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates will be speaking to representatives of big advertisers and leading advertising agencies at a conference at Microsoft's headquarters today. Ballmer will be announcing the formal launch of MSN adCenter. This means that all paid advertisements on MSN in the US are now supplied by Microsoft's own ad network, fully competing for the first time with the more established networks of Google and Yahoo!. Previously, ads were coming from Yahoo! and MSN has slowly been phasing Yahoo! out over the past few months as their contract will expire at the end of this month.

MSN Contextual Advertising Network to Come Next

On Wednesday, Microsoft outlined a broad new offensive against Google as it laid out plans to insert the targeted advertising generated by its new AdCenter system into a range of digital services beyond internet search. The next step for MSN will be to get these ads showing across a broad range of sites and not just its search network. MSN is reportedly working on a contextual advertising program and that MSN will call this targeted ad netword "ContentAds." More information posted here as soon as we can gather more information.

On a side note...

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that MSN and Yahoo! have been in talks to combine aspects of their business to have a better shot at competing with Google. The report speculates that MSN might buy Yahoo! or some part of their technologies.

Recently, Microsoft reported lower than expected earnings due to increased investment in search technology and plans to continue to increase spending in this area to compete with Google. This makes you wonder what part of Yahoo's services that MSN would need because they are working to improve their algorithmic search results as well as develop their own advertising network. It seems that if MSN wanted to make quick advances in these areas they would not increase their R&D and branch out with their own network, but would instead partner with Yahoo! to battle Google.

Need Help in adCenter?

MasterLink was one of an estimated 6,000 advertisers to participate in the Beta testing of MSN adCenter and participate in a demo of adCenter from a group of MSN adCenter specialists. If your company is wanting to advertise in adCenter, please contact the PPC specialists at MasterLink who have experience in using MSN adCenter!

-Mark Barrera
Search Engine Marketing Services

Creating Web Pages & Driving Search Results Based on Analytics

2006-04-25T17:57:00.000-06:00

According to a news report WebSideStory this week is announcing that it will marry its back-end Web analytics engine with consumer-facing search engine technology in Search Version 4.0.

The technology, dubbed Active Ranking and Active Navigation, allows the search engine to write to a suite of APIs in the analytics engine to pull data out of the system. Consumer searches on retail sites, for example, could present results based on most commonly purchased model, color, or style of product.

Essentially, this tool allows the analytics to determine in real-time what is most popular over a set period of time such as the last 30 days or 3 months. If a user on a cell phone site searched for Motorola on the site and the Pink Razor had the most purchases, then the search results would list the Pink Razor at the top of the results. This allows previous consumers to somewhat dictate what current shoppers are seeing.

Most web sites are currently using the analytics to determine the most popular items and then adjusting their site accordingly. Also, many sites such as Amazon.com utilize similar technologies to the recommend the products that people commonly buy that are related to the product that you are currently viewing. This technology takes it one step further and takes the manual labor out of the picture and automates the process in real time using these API’s.

What the future holds…

This technology has the ability to increase conversions dramatically. If sites can present these search results in this manner, one would think that the ability to build the site dynamically according to consumer preference is right around the corner. Here is a possible scenario:

A customer is on a phone company site. If they click on a link for phone service, the site would be able to instantly determine the most plan that has been purchased most frequently in the past week and then lead the customer to a page featuring that plan and then list the next most popular below, and so on.

Creating web pages or driving search results based on analytics was typically a behind-the-scenes manual operation, but now it can be automated. The end result for companies is less time spent analyzing data and more time to focus on other aspects of their marketing and their business.

-Mark Barrera
Search Engine Marketing Services

Please do not use this article unless you plan to keep all links active and please supply a link to this article.

Pew Internet & American Life Project: Report on influence of the Internet

2006-04-20T14:35:00.000-06:00

The Pew Internet & American Life Project recently released a report on the effect that the Internet has on people's lives. According to the report:

"The internet has become increasingly important to users in their everyday lives. It is also the case that for many of online Americans, the internet has become a crucial source of information at major moments and milestones in their lives.

Our surveys show that 45% of internet users, or about 60 million Americans, say that the internet helped them make big decisions or negotiate their way through major episodes in their lives in the previous two years.

Specifically, we found that over the three-year period, internet use grew by:

54% in the number of adults who said the internet played a major role as they helped another person cope with a major illness. And the number of those who said the internet played a major role as they coped themselves with a major illness increased 40%.

50% in the number who said the internet played a major role as they pursued more training for their careers.

45% in the number who said the internet played a major role as they made major investment or financial decisions.

43% in the number who said the internet played a major role when they looked for a new place to live.

42% in the number who said the internet played a major role as they decided about a school or a college for themselves or their children.

23% in the number who said the internet played a major role when they bought a car.

14% in the number who said the internet played a major role as they switched jobs."

-Mark Barrera
The MasterLink Group
Dallas Internet Marketing

MSN adCenter Launching New Features

2006-04-11T12:51:00.000-06:00

I just received the following email from the MSN adCenter team:

We have listened to your feedback during the MSN® adCenter pilot, and we are excited to announce an upcoming update of the tool, with some new features that will offer you a better, easier, and more productive customer experience.

With these new features, you will be able to:

Add multiple keywords when creating campaigns, rather than manually typing each keyword.
Sign up for MSN adMail with the new Communication Preferences checklist.
Print billing statements through our updated Billing tab.
Estimate bids to help reach position one ad ranking through our improved price estimation tool.
Insert text dynamically into an ad title or ad text (formerly known as parameters).

Please note that MSN adCenter will be down briefly while it's being updated on the afternoon of April 18. This should have no effect on your existing data or campaigns, which will remain live during this time. However, you will not be able to access your account or its features while we update adCenter, so we encourage you to make any needed immediate changes to your account beforehand.

To get more information about MSN Search, or to review frequently asked questions about MSN adCenter, check out our FAQ and Troubleshooting sections in the MSN adCenter Learning Center.

Sincerely,

The MSN adCenter team

These changes are going to be very beneficial to adCenter advertisers, with my favorite being the ability to add lists of keywords instead of the previous time consuming way of typing each keyword one at a time. The other key benefit of the upgrade will be the addition of the bid estimation tool. This will be very beneficial for advertisers who are targeting a specific ranking position. The part of this upgrade that is new to me is the MSN adMail. I assume that this will just be a way for MSN to communicate the latest news and changes to adCenter in an easy fashion. We will just have to be patient and wait until April 18th and test out the new features once the system is back online.

-Mark Barrera
Dallas Search Engine Optimization

Yahoo Search Marketing Upgrade in Beta Testing: Great for Advertisers

2006-04-07T15:22:00.000-06:00

Rumors in the search industry have been confirmed by Forbes that Yahoo will be testing a new and improved advertising system. They are claiming that it will be the best system to date, but I will only believe this when I see it. Reports say that they are testing the system with select advertisers in Scandinavia. The beta tests are expected to begin in June or late summer for the US advertisers. This new advertising system will feature dynamic bidding similar to Google and MSN which would take such factors as Click-Through-Rates and max bid price to determine the actual Cost-Per-Click. We will be searching for any screen shots and other fresh news on this MUCH AWAITED upgrade to Yahoo's antiquated system, so keep checking our blog for more info.

-Mark Barrera
Dallas Search Engine Marketing

Yahoo Index Updated

2006-04-03T15:28:00.000-06:00

Yahoo just announced that they have done a major update to their Index over the weekend. As a result, we ahve noticed some changes in ranking as well as some shuffling of the pages that are included in the index. Most of the changes seem to have had time to stablize but some search query seem to still be bouncing the results around pretty good. Thus far we have not seen much negative effects from this update. Meantime, if you have any comments or concers about the new index, feel free to email Yahoo at ystfeedback@yahoo.com.

-Mark Barrera
The MasterLink Group
Dallas Internet Marketing

MSN adCenter Support/Help Desk Phone Number

2006-03-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

This post is for all advertisers using MSN adCenter and are in need of help from an actual person. If you advertise in MSN adCenter and have clicked on the "HELP" button, you know that this button does nothing. The same is true when you attempt to "Contact Support" by means of the "Give us Feedback" link. It took me almost half an hour to find a phone number for adCenter technical support.

The phone number that I located that puts you in direct contact with the support desk at MSN adCenter is 1-800-966-7361. Their hours are 6:00am to 6:00pm PST. (TTY phone number is 1-800-877-9580).

I called this phone number and was directly connected to an MSN support representative, without having to go through any menus and withour entering any account information, which was very nice. I asked my question and was put on hold for less than 5 minutes and an answer was given to me. The answer was not the one I was looking for as they told me what I wanted to do was not yet possible, but none the less I had an answer from the adCenter help desk. I was also told that the issue of the "help" was being worked on by an MSN adCenter team and should be resolved "soon". This has been an issue for at least the 3 weeks that we have been using adCenter, so I hope this "team" can figure this thing out soon.

-Mark Barrera
Online Marketing
The MasterLink Group

MSN adCenter Ads soon to be on Xbox Live? You bet!

2006-03-13T08:52:00.000-07:00

It seems like the big news in the Pay Per Click Search Marketing war seems to always be about Google. I would say though you should never underestimate a billion dollar giant like Microsoft which many search engine marketers seem to do all to often. Microsoft seems to be getting ready to display adCenter advertising to millions of Xbox players via the XBox Live service.

According to Reuters Business Channel with a report released on Sun Mar 12, 2006 4:34 PM ET.

“Microsoft envisions adCenter to one day be a one-stop shop for advertisers to gather information then buy ads on search results, Microsoft-related sites and services, non-Microsoft sites, mobile phone software or even online Xbox video games.“

You can read the rest of the Reuters Report, “Microsoft takes on Yahoo, Google for Web ad dollars” at the Reuters Website and the rest of my thoughts on this matter at my Cracking the MSN adCenter Code Blog in my post, adCenter comming to an Xbox near you.

~ Jack Spirko
Web Site Optimization Specialist
The MasterLink Group

Google to Provide Hosting? - What's Next?

2006-03-06T11:16:00.000-07:00

Well, for years Bill Gates and the boys and girls at Microsoft have tried to basically own the operating system market. Goggle has seemed to be on the same track in the internet world now here comes more evidence.

Garett Rogers posted on his Google blog a discovery of some code hidden in GMail. This following line was the code in question

function vJ(){if(uy){;return''+"Manage this domain"+" "}else{return""}}

Don't worry if you don't know code all that well the only real piece that you need to grasp is the part that says, "Manage this domain".

What this indicates, (according to Garett) and I would tend to agree, is that Google will soon be allowing people to set mail.google.com as thei mail server as they develop their own mail servers for public use. This is nothing like Gmail it would be like me using @masterlink.com for my email but then have the mail traffic run over the google servers.

Taking this one step further and based in part on the launch of Google Web Page Creator last week and building on the launch of Google Analytics (for free) it appears that the folks at Google are preparing to not just index the Internet, they want to control it by monitoring how people use your site (Google Analytics), control how you design and host your site (Google Web Page Creator) and now, control how you communicate over the Internet with others.

So whats next? In my opinion full scale hosting (for less then most quality competitors). Will we see Google's top three in front of Congress some day in a "Microsoft Like" set of hearings? Who knows but it is certainly possible,

Jack Spirko

Search Marketing Specialist

The MasterLink Group

Is there a Rogue Google Data Center not Using the Sandbox?

2006-03-02T10:31:00.000-07:00

Recently we have launched several new websites with brand new top level domains. We quickly got them indexed and began to gain ranking for some non competitive terms as is the usual pattern. However, we also have noticed with some of them, a major traffic spike for some quite competitive terms. This issue is that all the traffic seems to be coming from one particular google data center.

While the other centers have stuck to the pattern of making it tough to rank new sites for the more competitive terms (more then 100,000 exact matches) and you really have to throttle your link building to avoid a "google bomb" this new data center has picked up, on one particular niche not only our site but 3 others that appear to be new as well and ranked them in the top ten among some very powerful sites with high PR and a good deal of age on them.

(clearly we are unwilling to release the exact terms and the sites in question for obvious reasons)

This has us thinking [and for now it is only a thought], that this data center may be rogue in nature and perhaps Google is looking to see if the "sandbox" is being over used and having a negative effect on their results especially on new topics. Here are the factors we have noticed that at least are worth considering.

1. 40% of the top ten terms on this one data center are new to very new sites (one is less then 5 days old! and drawing close to a thousand visits for one term per day all from one data center)

2. While some decent links were used to get the indexing done swiftly they were from PR4 to PR5 sites (not pages) so now major power of a PR7 or PR8 is at play here.

3. More interesting the traffic is from all over North America so it is not like this data center is serving a particular region or anything like that. If you wanted to "test" something you would get better results with a broad sample. The traffic logs clearly show that this traffic is from a very broad geographic region.

4. The sites are all indexed by the other data centers and rank for non competitive terms but not the competitive ones that rank top ten in the rogue center following the typical pattern. Only this one data center gives the newer sites a high rank for the harder terms.

This is an interesting concept to consider. We have not yet decided whether or not we are going to publish the IP address of the Google Rogue Data Center so stay tuned and may be we will release it.

Of course we did all the things right with these sites to avoid the sandbox and they are optimized well, have reasonable links for a new site, etc. Still it is clear one data center has for some time treated this group of new sites a lot differently then the rest. Dusting off and old quote, "things that make you go hmm". There is no doubt that highly revelant new sites are penalized by the sandbox and that it must hurt searches as well that are looking for the newest content available. So may be just may be there is indeed a Rogue Google Datacenter and perhaps it is intentional. As marketers we know that testing is the best way to get answers based on facts so that could be what Google is up to.

Any thoughts or comments are appreciated,

Jack Spirko

SEO Specialist

The MasterLink Group

Dallas Web Design and SEO Firm

MSN adCenter Blog

2006-03-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

Recently I decided to launch a new Blog Dedicated 100% to MSN's New adCenter called The MSN adCenter Code Blog. We will continue to post MSN adCenter and all intenet marketing news and tips here but all MSN specific posts and some exclusive posting will go on this new blog.

Jack Spirko

MSN Adcenter Taking Away from Yahoo Search Advertisers

2006-03-01T12:02:00.000-07:00

MSN Search has recently turned up the amount of ads that will be served from its new AdCenter advertisers. MSN had been showing their ads 25% of the time and announced that this Monday they were increasing that amount by 75% meaning that almost half of the ads shown alongside organic MSN Search results. This rollout should be done by the end of this week.

The upside to this is that advertisers who are currently advertising in the AdCenter Beta program will be seeing better results from their campaign. These advertisers need to watch their budgets carefully if they have set budgets higher with the expectation that they would not be reached in the beginning. Their impressions and click throughs are expected to climb immediately.

The downside to this change affects advertisers in the Yahoo Search Marketing program. Currently these advertisers are having their ads shown not only alongside Yahoo search results, but also along side MSN Search results. This means that as MSN stops showing the ads on its network the number of impressions and click throughs that will been seen on the Yahoo Search Marketing will inevitably decrease. Many self-serve advertisers with Yahoo Search Marketing will have to search out new keywords for the traffic -OR- as Bill Gates is hoping, put that money into MSN's AdCenter.

MSN has also announced that they will be showing their own ads fully by June so Yahoo Search Marketers need to hurry to get into the MSN AdCenter Beta or else face losing a large chunk of their traffic.

Now you may ask how to start advertising in MSN AdCenter when they are only sending out invitations into the Beta program. The answer to that is to call up an Internet Marketing Firm who manages large accounts and has a little more pull with MSN. Otherwise, it looks like you will have to wait and watch as others reap the benefits.

-Mark Barrera
Online Marketing
The MasterLink Group

MSN Team Gives First Public Demo of MSN adCenter 3.0 presented to DFW SEM

2006-02-21T13:27:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday night Feb, 20th MasterLink and other attendees of DFW SEM's Monthly Meeting were treated to a presentation of MSN's new Adcenter Version 3.0 (which of course is still in Beta and just released on Saturday which made this 3.0s first ever public showing by Microsoft) Quite a few members of the MSN staff came out to present the new PPC Option from MSN but the presentation was given by the two ladies in the picture to the left (Celena Kingson, Search Marketing Specialist on the left & Robyn Raybould, Search Marketing Analyst on the right) who flew in from in from New York just to meet with our group.

Overall Mark Barrera and I both felt that MSN adCenter is going to be a great new source of traffic. I have already gone on record stating that MSN seems to be getting the organic results right with my article (Is MSN Building a Better Mouse Trap), now it seems they may be on the way to a better PPC Mouse Trap as well.

Here is some of what we learned straight from the MSN folks about the new adCenter.

1. The new adCenter has dynamic parameter options beyond just dynamic keywords. Much like with Google Adwords you do dynamic keyword insertion. You can also however set up to three dynamic parameters that allow you additional control over your ad copy and even allow for dynamic destination URLs. Due to the fact that adCenter enables you to insert keywords into each creative, they are even more relevant to every search and when used properly should have a dramatic effect on CTR.

2. In addition to key word research that is similar to the adCenter system (shows terms based on a website or terms related to terms you provide) you can view extensive demographic data which is gathered primarily via Microsoft Passport users and includes things like, basic traffic trends, age and gender, geography, wealth index and lifestyle. This allows you once again to tailor ad copy and landing page messages to the most prominent demographic for your terms.

3. adCenter also offers a tool called incremental bidding allowing advertisers to bid a higher rate for specific groups. For instance if you wanted specifically target 26-35 year old males and felt that traffic from that demographic was worth more then your base bid you can add a incremental bid for that demographic. Say you were bidding 1 dollar max bid on a key word or group of words, you then could say 26-35 year old males are you most likely buyers so you could set an incremental bid of 20% for that group and when searched for by a user in that demographic your higher bid of 1.20 max would be applied automatically. This opens up a lot of options that we will have to research a lot further to fully exploit, however it takes targeting and spit testing to a new level.

4. MSN has also noticed what Google did right and Yahoo has done wrong when it comes to ranking ads. Unlike the wide open show all bids system of Yahoo MSN adCenter simply asks for your max bid and shows "estimated average position" for your terms. You can then write multiple ads per ad group (called orders in the adCenter system) and split test them. In doing so you can spit test and find the best CTR. Also much like adwords you are not ranked based solely on your bid but on a combination of your bid and CTR.

5. This next feature we feel is a huge benefit and it makes one wonder exactly what is wrong with the folks at Yahoo and Google and why they have not provided it long ago. This feature allows you to only display your ads on specific days of the week, specific times of day or a combination of each. For instance if one of your key word groups always converted best on weekdays during business hours you can set that group to only display during those times and there spend your monthly budget fully during the times that have proven to convert best for said group.

Overall our opinion is that Microsoft has gone out of the way to give marketers what we most want when it comes to targeting and budget optimization. That being more ways to control our budgets and maximize them by demographics, geography and time of day or week.

Two additional notes...

First, when questioned about a possible entry into the content advertising business (i.e. Adsense and Yahoo Publisher) Robyn and Celena declined to comment on a timeline and only stated that it was being discussed.

Second, When asked about analytics no time line was given but we were told that one of Bill Gates' special research groups was currently working on a very powerful analytics system for use with adCenter. That was all the information we could get on that subject. Of course standard conversion tracking is available already.

We look forward to working with MSN and our local Account Executive Juan Garza as well as Robyn and Celena to learn to maximize adCenter. In any event 3.0 is a clear improvement over 2.0 and we are greatly looking forward to the next rev being even better.

Jack Spirko
Search Marketing Specialist
The MasterLink Group

Search grows by 75% Google's share tops 48%

2006-02-10T13:32:00.000-07:00

Yes once again the totals for the past year are in and again Google has increased its' market share to a now whopping 48.8% according to Nielsen/Net Ratings.

The standings in 2004 were

1. Google 43.1% of all search traffic

2. Yahoo 21.7% of all search traffic

3. MSN 14.0% of all search traffic

The new standings for the year ended 2005 are

1. Google 48.8% (up 5.7%)

2. Yahoo 21.4% (down .3%)

3. MSN 10.9% (down 3.1%)

It seems pretty clear that Google grabbed most of the market share increase from MSN, (my guess is it has a ton to do with the growth of the FireFox browser just watching web logs I have seen 5+% growth of FireFox in 2005). While many may look at this and see that it is just another indication that Google is winning the war that is a short sighted view.

The real story here is the total growth of the search market. While MSN may have lost 3% of the market share you can bet they even at the bottom saw tremendous growth last year.

Looking at it another way the market as a whole grew 70-75% so by loosing 3% MSN had to "suffer" with a growth of only say 65-68%. Or another way to see it is that MSN at the bottom of the heap only had a "tiny" 590 Million Searches last year. (that would be about 10% of 5.5 Billion Total Searches)

What does this tell us? It tell's us that search engine marketing and website optimization is now more important then ever. A growth curve of 75% makes search and search marketing the most rapidly growing market in existance today.

It is also important to understand that this growth is really about people using the internet more not just growth of users. There was only a gain of 3% of total internet users so clearly what we see is existing users moving more of there entertainment, research and shopping online.

Jack Spirko
Seo Specialist
The MasterLink Group

It's A Wonderful Internet

2005-12-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

For all of the fans of Frank Copra's well known movie, It's A Wonderful Life, this link is for you:
It's A Wonderful Internet

Enjoy, and Happy Holidays from MasterLink!

AOL picks Google over MSN in new deal

2005-12-19T09:43:00.000-07:00

AOL has chosen to use Google for all aspects of its search needs. No more than two weeks ago the Wall Street Journal stated that MSN was in the final stages of inking a deal to provide the AOL with its search services. The deal is expected to be announced formally tomorrow.

Published reports claim that Google has paid $1 billion to take a 5 per cent stake in the media giant. This is good news for AOL as it has struggled with a lower subscriber base and problems with its merger with Time Warner.

Google will promote AOL web properties and include AOL's online videos "amongst the search results", adds the Wall Street Journal, ambiguously. 'Amongst' may mean 'as part of', or it may mean along side', and there's a world of difference between the two. Google emerges from the negotiations as an advertising powerhouse. It will use AOL's ad sales team and make use of a range of advertising inventory, such as banners, that brand conscious advertisers demand.

The deal is principally about advertising, but the pair also agreed to extend their search agreement, signed in 2001, for another five years.

In MSN's fight to 'build a better mouse trap' it seems Google has thrown a large obstacle in the way of MSN's fight to the top.

-Mark Barrera
The MasterLink Group, Inc.
Search Engine Marketing Services

Is Google’s algorithm working against them?

2005-12-15T12:04:00.000-07:00

A large debate has sprung up on the Internet between Jeremy Zawodny and Matt Cutts on the practice of selling links. In a post by Zawodny, he has discussed the many ways he has attempted to profit from his popular blog. It seems the latest is by selling sponsored links to clients who also benefit by receiving a piece of his well-ranked site with a PR8. It seems that Cutts had no objections until it came to the practice of selling sponsored links outside of the large advertisers such as Google. Recently Google has been altering their algorithm to fight against the purchase of links by penalizing sites that purchase links to gain a higher page rank. There also seems to be a different issue that must be addressed. Google itself makes the majority of its revenue by selling ads through its contextual advertising program, Adsense. The issue at hand is whether Google can really start penalizing sites for selling links, because this is what Google itself is doing when it plasters Adsense all over the Internet. It seems as if they deem themselves the Internet authority so everyone must play by their rules or else suffer at their hands while they don’t have to abide by any rules themselves. Google is attempting to influence these link sellers to use the rel="nofollow” attribute in order to prevent the passing of page rank. This leads to the question of for whom websites are created for….Should programmers focus all efforts on making Google happy or design for the benefit of the reader as well as the company who owns the site. It seems as if Google is attempting to force its rules on all web developers and punish people for practices that have been common since the introduction of the Internet. Matt Cutts seems to take the argument that Google should be allowed to down-rank pages such as Zawodny’s for selling links if they choose to do so. How fair is it to punish a site with some of the most relevant information just because people are willing to pay for links from such a popular site? It seems as if Google, by putting such a strong emphasis on page ranks may be causing some problems that may not have been foreseen and are now coming to the forefront of discussion. Also, it seems that Google may be worried that webmasters may take the selling of ads into their own hands and stray away from the use of one of Google’s cash cows – Adsense. I would like to say however that I do think that some standard should be created to prevent spammy sites from attaining high PRs in order to just gain a buck, but punishing everyone who sells links even when they have relevant content just doesn't seem to be fair. Google should be VERY careful in deciding how to attack this issue as I predict that an algorithm change in the near future may be focused on this issue.

On a side note, it seems that Matt Cutts had been linking to Zawodny's site and not using a "nofollow" tag. After Cutts' comments on this topic, the links have now been changed to include this reference or removed all together. Removing PR benefits from a non-paid link? Hmm....can't everyone do this and essentially eliminate the whole idea behind page rank?

Ahh.....the things we do to make Google happy.

-Mark Barrera
The MasterLink Group, Inc
Search Engine Marketing Services

Excellent Review of SEO Ranking Factors

2005-12-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

I got this link today on one of my RSS feeds. This came to me from the Beanstalk Blog

Many lists have been written of the various factors used to rank websites however I've yet to see one so well researched and presented as the one on the SEOmoz website.

The contributors to this list include:

Danny Sullivan
Dan Thies
Jill Whalen
Scottie Claiborne
among others

The link to the list is http://www.seomoz.org/articles/search-ranking-factors.php

I found this very useful and getting multiple perspectives from active industry experts cuts through a ton of the misinformation that is out there,

Jack Spirko

Search Engine Marketing Specialist

The MasterLink Group, Inc

Microsoft and AOL may be close to a deal

2005-12-07T07:45:00.000-07:00

According to a report in the New York Times today, Time Warner will most likely not sell a stake in AOL or sell the business outright, but will strike a partnership with either Microsoft or Google. A story in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) names Microsoft as the frontrunner, saying the two are close to a deal.

Google currently provides AOL with its organic and paid search results, and shares revenue generated by the ads with AOL. Microsoft is currently piloting its own paid search listings, and has its own organic search engine, which could replace Google on AOL. Google's current contract with AOL ends in 2006.

The Times said the deal with Microsoft could include creating a joint advertising sales force with MSN, but that Google would not be interested in such an arrangement.

This just adds fuel to the fire in regard to my article MSN Building a Better Mousetrap?

Jack Spirko
Search Engine Marketing Specialist
The MasterLink Group, Inc

Is MSN Search Building a Better Mouse Trap?

2005-12-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

It is an old cliché, build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door. Looking back at the history of the search industry there is no better proof of this then the success of the internet search giant Google but are they now being beaten at their own game? Possibly, lets look at how Google got to where they are, what has happened since they became the big dog and what their most recent algorithm changes mean for web users and Googles competitors.

First lets start with why Google became the search engine. In the beginning of search engines there were a ton of players some you may remember and some you may not. Some survived and others died off and many of the small fish were eaten up (bought out) by their brothers as the big three and came to control the vast majority of the search market. Google came out of this with the biggest chunk by far of that majority, it didnt hurt that for a while they were actually providing the results of their competitors (it was not that long ago that Yahoo was simply a mirror of Googles results) but there was something more at the core of their success.

Keep in mind that as this war was raging the internet was really still quite young and there were a lot less sites online even say 3 years ago then there are today. Take that back 7-8 years when the net was really starting to grow and Google first launched in 1998. At that time people where not yet doing a ton of buying online they were more in the information gathering world. You really have to think about what it was like just a short time back. People were quickly moving to looking up any question, concept or piece of information online and for a huge number of people it was a brand new experience. Further when you started trying to find sites about monarch butterflies or classic muscle cars or fine cigars there were actually a lot less sites out there about what ever subject it may have been that you were looking to learn about.

Read the Full Article

Today's New Tool

2005-12-06T08:34:00.000-07:00

It honestly amazes me how much information can be acquired if you just know where to look. For a while I have kept this little gem to myself but today I will share it with you.

This tool is called the Marketleap Link Popularity Check

Yes yet another link checking tool but this one is very cool in its own way

First you enter any site you want to check links for and up to 3 additional sites you also have an option to select a "category" such as books, computers, media etc.

You then click Generate Report and the first report you will get is a listing of the websites you entered, their total link popularity over all the main search engines and about 30 sites from the category you selected. (if you don't select a category it will default to "general") You then see your sites back links and how they compare to those other 30 sites across a spectrum that measures your "Total Presence"

Presence is classified into one of the following areas

Limited Presence
Average Presence
Above Average
Contender
Player
900 Pound Gorilla

The number of link to qualify for each level varies with the category and appears to be based on what the top 5-6 sites in each category rank.

As if this was not enough once you run a report on your site you create a bench mark which is stored in the Market Leap data base so when you come back you can pull up a report called a "Trend History Report" so you can see a graph of your growth or loss of back links. There is no user name or password or account info required anytime anyone runs a report on ANY SITE the data point is stored. Hence you may find a lot of info on your competition already stored for your review.

One more cool thing since you can run a report on any site your competitors may be running checks on you if you go in and check one of your sites and see that trending data is available you KNOW someone is checking up on your site. The more dates recorded the more often you are being checked on. Keep track of the days you run your reports and you will know every time a competitor uses this tool to check up on you. You may not like being "checked out" but one thing is for sure if you getting looked at you know you are doing something right.

There is also another report called a Search Engine Saturation Report which just tells you how many pages of a site are indexed for the main search engines and this report shows trending as well. This is a great tool for the do it yourself type and a great tool professionals can use to show clients trending in their back links and indexing.

Again you can find this tool at the following Link - Marketleap Link Popularity Check

Jack Spirko
Search Engine Marketing Specialist
The MasterLink Group, Inc - Dallas Web Design

Extended Warranty Quote

Yet Another Tool

2005-12-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

This morning I was wondering what new tool I could find that would add value to the things I have already posted about.

Enter The Search Engine Techniques Assistant

This tool is really great if you understand how to use it right. What it will do is identify common SEO techniques for any term you are looking to rank.

What you do is find a site that ranks well for a term you are looking to rank a page of your own for, enter the competitors site and the terms you want to rank for and click

"Analyze Page"

Now a lot of tools do this but what I particularly like is the data that is compared on one page side by side that allows you to quickly identify what I consider to be under utilized soft targets. You see not only does it show the on page factors like key word density, tags, and even key word densities for the first 250, 500 and 1000 characters it also shows back links. I know if you use tools similar you are thinking big deal right?

But wait go try it with a site you are familiar with and what should quickly jump out at you is the fact that you can identify four specific types of sites that rank at the top for a term or phrase

1. Good on page factors (tags, density, etc) and good off page factors (inbound links) - This means the term is most difficult to acquire as both sides need to be right to sit on the top of the heap

2. Bad on page factors and good off page linking - This may actually be a harder competitor to beat in any event you know this term is driven highly by off site factors and that will be important to both how you go after it and IF you go after it depending on the number of links the number one and number ten ranked competitors on google have.

3. Bad off page factors but good on page factors - This is a relatively soft target because it is driven mostly by on page factors which you can analyze and better and off page factors are weak so a few good links can really push you to the top.

4. Relatively poor off page factors and relatively poor on page factors - If this type of phrase has traffic behind it you have found a nugget of pure gold! It is a term you can just get a few good links for and adjust the page for density and tagging and simply take the top of all the big engines for it. This is one of the key things we target for our clients at MasterLink.

The key here is to understand that if you have a choice to rank well for a SINGLE term that will bring you 1000 visitors a month it will be competitive and you will have to stay on it heavy, one major update can tank it and you have to start all over to push it back up. However if over time you can take good rankings for 50-100 niche terms that combine to provide you with the same 1000 visitors if you loose any of them in an update your liability is limited. This can easily be compared to buying a mutual fund vs... a single stock to limit total liability.

The right way of course is to over time build a portfolio of rankings that include all four types of terms outlined here but the time to acquire and labor necessary to maintain each will vary by making sure you have a good mix you can build a lot of stability and more important a ton of steady traffic. What I really like about this tool is it will quickly help you sort terms into one of the above 4 categories.

Jack Spirko

Search Engine Marketing Specialist

The MasterLink Group, Inc

Google Click-to-Call

2005-11-29T13:43:00.000-07:00

Google is now testing a new click-to-call service that lets web surfers speak with advertisers on its search results page without having to pick up the phone and dial.

A Web surfer can click a small phone icon adjacent to an PPC ad and enter his or her own phone number and then click a "connect for free" button. Google's system then calls the advertiser's phone number and the surfer just picks up the receiver on his phone, he or she will then hear ringing as the call to the advertiser is connected.

Right now it is not clear how broad the testing is. I did a few sample searches for frequently searched topics, such as "cell phones," "car rental" and "mortgage," and was not able to find any of the icons but fellow SEO blogger Greg Yardley was able to obtain screen shots, which he posted last Wednesday.

Google said it pays for the calls, whether local or long distance the only charges the Web surfer may incur would be airtime fees if they were using a cell phone which is kind of obivious that if you use your cell phone you are spending your cell phone minutes.

Rival Microsoft which of course provides MSNSearch said it had purchased Teleo (announced in August), an Internet calling company with the potential to allow MSN to offer click-to-call capabilities. Time will tell how well this new feature will be recieved by customers and advertizers it seems like a great feature but it will be getting surfers to recognize and use it that will determine the success or failure of this program.

I am not quite sure yet as to my opinion on this. On the surface it looks like a clear winner, however think about the fact that internet users generaly want to scan, research and then contact or buy and you begin to question just how popular this feature is going to become.

We will just have to wait and see,

Jack Spirko

Search Engine Marketing Specialist

The MasterLink Group, Inc

Google API Key

2005-11-29T12:07:00.000-07:00

Well in only a matter of hours after my post on Back Link Analyzer I have had a few people ask, "just how to you get a Google API Key" and given it has been so long since I got mine I forgot how screwed up Google is about this if you already have an account. Everyone who asked me how has an existing Google account by the way.

Now why is this a pain in the butt to get the key well because apparently the folks at Google did not really think the api page though

Here is what you do go to http://www.google.com/apis/ you will see all types of wonderful information about the API Key and what it can do and an invitation to set up an account. You can then set up your google account if you don't have one yet. All you do is set up your account and because you came through the API portion of the Google site they will send you an api key when you sign up. No real troubles there.

Now for those who have an existing Google account.

You will notice on the api key page there is nothing about creating an api key such as something simple like "click here to create an api key"

Nope that would be too simple so the only thing you see to click on is create an account which you already have!

So if you search for "create a google api key" on google you will find this URL www.api.google.com/create key yet it will just take you to the create an account page like some twisted circle set up just to annoy you. Of course you can't set up an account because you already have an account and that would violate the terms and condition by having two accounts (heaven forbid you do that and get banned). All you want is your API key but Google just mocks you!

Of course no one at Google seems to of had the foresight to have put a link on said page that says something like "existing account holders click here to sign in and get your API key".

Now doesn't this make you wonder how a company as successful as Google could do something this confusing?

So if you have a Google account and you want to get an api key added to it just how the heck do you do it?

Only way I can see to get it done is this

1. Go to https://www.google.com/accounts/ and log into your google account

then

2. Go to www.api.google.com/create key after you have logged in during the same browser session and Google will recognize you as being logged in and create and email your key to you.

Now is it just me or does this seem to be overly complicated? Perhaps someone should point this out to Matt Cutts?

Jack Spirko

Search Engine Marketing Specialist

The MasterLink Group, Inc

Back Link Analyzer - Great Free Tool

2005-11-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

Now this is a really great tool that gives you more information then just about any free tool I have yet to see and in fact more information then a lot of expensive SEO software out there.

The tool is called Backlink Analyzer and it does a ton more then just show back links.

Here is how it works you enter the url you want to check for links, you then select the search engine/engines you want to check and set the parameters such as do you want to see the link type (as in it will identify if your links are recopicial or one way) and click go. In just a few minutes (seconds if you have only a few links) it develops a report for you that shows

1. The page linking to you

2. The IP address of that page

3. The Anchor Text of the Link or the Alt Image Tag if the link is an image and has an alt link (this is extremely valuable)

4. The total number of links on the page your link is on and how many are outbound links vs. inbound links

5. Whether the link is one way or reciprocal

6. A summary report of the raw numbers of reciplicle links, one way links, total link popularity and number of IP C-Blocks represented in all your linking pages

I found this tool extremely useful, very intuitive and very fast.

There were a few hang ups though.

1. You need a Google API Key to get the detailed google results (no big deal) and that limits your google results to 1000 a day

2. Serval times while running a link check the program hung up on me (always with yahoo by the way) this seemed to occur when one of the linking sites was down and unresponsive to the query from the program. In other words Yahoo had the info but when the individual site was asked for an update the program simply did not give up. I checked the offending site and it was indeed down. The program has a "stop" button but clicking it did not work it told me it may take a few minutes to stop but 20 minutes later it was still hung. I used windows task manager to shut it down and that worked at once.

Despite the hang up on yahoo for one site the tool has proven quite effective and I highly recommend it, again it is called Backlink Analyzer and you can find it by clicking here.

Jack Spirko

Search Engine Marketing Specialist

The MasterLink Group, Inc

New Article on our SEM Site

2005-11-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

We have just added a new article about Hiring a SEO Firm on our new dedicated SEO Website. Here is a part of it,

What to Understand Before You Hire a Web Site Optimization Firm

It is no secrete that the topic of search engine marketing (SEM) and in fact internet marketing as a whole has become a hot topic lately. Many companies from small businesses to the largest corporations have really come around to understanding just how powerful web site optimization can be when done properly. Even the companies that as recent as two years ago, were convinced that the internet wasn’t for them are beginning to see the light, primarily because they are seeing their competitors succeed online and feel they are falling behind.

Considering all of this it is no surprise that over the same period of time an entire new business segment has developed with the rise of Search Engine Optimization Firms, (also called SEO Firms), ranging in size from small one man operations to large professional companies serving America ’s top multi-national corporations. Some of these firms are excellent; many leave a lot to be desired and to compound the confusion in the market place search engine optimization is not very well understood by most people. Then add in this little tid bit.

“Whatever you know about search engine optimization and in fact any internet marketing method will be at least a little bit different next month and will continue to change almost daily for years to come”.

Read the Full Article about Hiring a Website Optimization Firm

Jack Spirko

Search Engine Marketing Specialist

The MasterLink Group, Inc

RankQuest another FireFox Extension

2005-11-23T07:08:00.000-07:00

I have decided to post about RankQuest and the tool bar they offer. This issue with this to me is you don't really need the tool bar book marking the RankQuest Website is really all you need to do but the toolbar is very convenient.

This tool bar does a lot of great things but all by simply taking you to their website and entering the URL that you enter into the tool bar automatically as you use each tool. I myself have decided to go ahead and keep the bar installed in FireFox and that way I don't have to dig into my book marks to use the features it has.

So just what does this tool do? Well to start off it does the typical stuff like

Like Google, MSN and Yahoo back links

Shows key word density

Shows Indexed Pages

For those types of features I actually prefer and will continue to use the Search Status Bar from Quirk as it sits at the bottom right of the Firefox browser out of the way and can do these things much quicker, including using the tabs in the FireFox browser to show all back links and all indexed pages in one click for all three engines. Yet RankQuest has some very cool features that the Quirk Tool simply does not.

1. Lynx View - With this you can see what your site would look like in the Lynx Browser, at least that is the claim, having viewed the Lynx browser I disagree with that but it is a good text only view.

2. Key Word Density Compare - To me this is the best feature and the reason I am willing to keep this bar installed. You can enter several URLs and a group of key word phrases and click and get side by side analysis of all the sites for all the phrases in again one click. I don't know how many urls or phrases you can check at one time but I tried four sites for five phrases and got results in a few seconds.

3. A pretty good META tag analyzer

They also have a HTML Validation Tool and Code Cleaner which I think needs work. I tried the code cleaner on a few pages to see the results and found that it seemed to cause layout problems, image file name changes etc. So personaly I won't be using those features for the time being.

All in all it is a great tool worth having mostly for the side by side densities. Some people will claim densities do not matter any more and those people are right and wrong at the same time.

If the term is a major term like "cell phone" or "chevy" that is true as tons of webmaster and optimizers are getting targeted anchor links for those terms heavily weighting the off page factors for them. Yet if you are searching for

"cingular cell phone dealer dallas"

"original used chevy parts wholesale"

Density plays a major role and such phrases are the ones buyers use, keep that in mind as you continue in your SEM efforts.

Jack Spirko

Search Engine Marketing Specialist

The MasterLink Group, Inc

Google Sitemaps Improves

2005-11-22T11:47:00.000-07:00

Last week when updating Sitemaps for our Search Engine Marketing Clients, I noticed a major upgrade to the service. Google is giving more advanced reporting tools that allow you to better understand how Google is crawling your site, as well as other insights. In order to be able to view these new advanced statistics, you must first verify that you are the owner of the domain by a two step process which helps to prevent unauthorized access to your site statistics.

Google now allows you to see in depth crawl stats. You can see a distribution of the pages successfully crawled and the errors encountered on each page as well as a distribution of current PageRanks for all pages in your site.

The URL error reports now include 40 different types of errors in 5 categories, which allows you to correct any crawl errors much faster without having to crawl the site yourself to locate problems. If a link is broken or a page is no londer there, you will be notified every time that Google crawls your site. This is a great tool for large websites who have link structures that are complex and constantly changing. You can also better mangage the URLs that are blocked from being crawled as well be notified of URLs that are not being reached when they should be.

Another neat feature is the query stats that are now provided. These stats are shown for your domain whether or not you have submitted a site map to Google. It allows you to see the top Google search queries that return pages to your site as well as the top queries that caused users to click on your site in the search results. This allows you to better write titles and descriptions for pages that are top search queries and are not returning a high click through rate. It is also useful for sites that do not track referral stats by monitoring log files. At this point in time, Google is only showing the top 4 queries and the top 4 search query clicks. However, I feel that Google will show more results in the future as more people start to take advantage of this free feature and they are better able to fine tune the service.

Learn more about Google Sitemaps by visiting: https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/about.html

-Mark Barrera
The MasterLink Group, Inc
Search Engine Marketing Services

Online Search Marketing Tool

2005-11-18T12:17:00.000-07:00

Well I have one more key word / search engine tool for everyone today. It is called Site Report Card and has been around for a long time. A fellow named Gene Culver turned me onto it about three years ago and I have used it with clients especially when in the field and away from my own computer to explain a lot of things like Key Word Density, Site Optimization, Inbound Links, Page Ranks, etc.

One of the real cool things to do with this tool is to do report on one of your pages, then do the keyword report on it, then open a new window and go do a search for that term or group of terms and see who is number one for it on what ever engine you want.

Then put the URL of the competitor who is at number one into the box to compare it to yours and it will show the key word densities side by side for both sites. It does not show everything but does show basic density and works very quickly.

If you take this tool and combine it with the two Mozilla/Firefox extensions I mentioned earlier today you have about 60-75% of what many SEO software suites provide.

So there you go your new tool kit is...

Just download the Mozilla Browser

Download and install the Quirk SearchStatus Tool Bar Extension

Download and install the SEO Links Extension

Then bookmark and remember to use SiteReportCard

With those resources you can very quickly make adjustments and do checks on the fly greatly enhancing your SEO efforts,

Jack Spirko

Search Engine Marketing Specialist

The MasterLink Group, Inc

Tool for those using Adsense

2005-11-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

Here is the code to tell Google to start emphasizing the content on your page:

Then after your article put the following code:

Using these tags will help you to insure that google puts the adsense content on your page that actually has to do with what your page is about and of course this will help your click thru rates. In many instances it will also result in more expensive key words being displayed and therefore also increase revenue from your adsense campaign.

Jack Spirko

Search Engine Marketing Specialist

The MasterLink Group, Inc

Another SEO Links Extension

2005-11-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

This SEO Links extension gives you tooltips specially enhanced for SEOs. When enabled, hovering any link in Firefox will show you Yahoo, MSN, and Google link popularity and ranking data for the URL and anchor text pair. For times you just want regular surfing and tooltips, the extension can be quickly toggled on and off in a single click.

This works really easily once installed you simply hover over any hyperlink and you will see information about the page in points to show up in a little hover box this information is for MSN, Yahoo and Google as is basicly

1. The number of links indexed in each engine that point to the target page

2. The rank on each engine (if ranked in the top ten) for the term held in the anchor text

Mark Barerra another member of the MasterLink Internet Marketing Team turned me on to this tool.

Here is the link to learn more about it,

http://www.webmasterbrain.com/seo-tools/firefox-extensions/seo-links/

Jack Spirko

Search Engine Marketing Specialist

The MasterLink Group, Inc

SearchStatus: A Search Extension for Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox

2005-11-18T09:15:00.000-07:00

Now this is a great tool for Mozilla - Fire Fox which shows things like Google Page Rank, which of course is something the Google Tool Bar for IE does but this tool offers so much more.

In addition it shows features of the web page you are viewing like

Key Word Density

Backward Links on MSN, Google, Yahoo or All Three at Once (via the tabs in the browser)

Total Indexed Pages for the site again in any of or all of the big three search engines

The Alexa Rank

It also shows quite a bit more. I am not an anti Microsoft guy I am just big on Mozilla because it works better and this is just one more example of that.

You can download this tool at the following link http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/

I have to say this is one of the best SEO Tools I have ever worked with,

Jack Spirko

Search Engine Marketing Specialist

The MasterLink Group, Inc

Here Comes the Real Results of Jagger3

2005-11-18T07:29:00.000-07:00

Well it looks like the full effect of Jagger3 is about to be upon us in full force. Quite a few other SEO seem to have noticed the same thing I noticed last night results show the update you do a refresh and then back to the Jagger2 now this morning it seems that the Jagger3 results are steady and consistent.

Here is what I have come to realize looking at the results as they have changed over the three updates

1. The value of direct reciprocal linking was clearly effected but not to the degree many including myself have surmised. I know of a few extremely competitive key phrases who were number one on Google and the SEOs behind them have really relied on reciprocal links to a high degree. Most of them maintained their number one ranks or if they dropped only went down to number two.

2. The big winner as everyone expected were the HUGE sites in quite a few of the above mentioned competitive phrases when the old number one was pushed to number 2 or 3 the new king is about.com I think about was the biggest winner in most of the areas where I saw change, just does not seem like what is really best for the user does it?

3. Professional SEOs and Do It Yourselfers alike can still gain advantage with reciprocal links but they need to work on one way linking as well and stay away from small rings, I feel site links that link site a to site b and site b to site c and then site c back to site a arrangements have been found out as well.

4. Deep links were always important as were varied links (to your home page and many other pages of your site) honestly I feel reciprocal links will still work great as long as you use a "change up" approach. Set up a rotation and each time you work on links change the page you are getting links to, organize this and if you keep moving it around your links even reciprocal links will continue to work well.

5. This may sound a bit contradictory but I also feel in some instances on page factor value has gone up and here is what I mean by that. In some instances with moderately competitive phrases where top dogs were there with a ton of clear reciprocal links with most going to one page on their site some of their competitors with a lot less (in fact very few) natural links and great on page factors have pulled ahead.

The old view was content is king and while that has been mitigated a bit by Google's high dependence on links it is clear that content is still a much bigger part of the equation then many seem to realize,

Jack Spirko

Search Engine Marketing Specialist

The MasterLink Group, Inc

New SEO Site [Beta Version]

2005-11-17T15:20:00.000-07:00

MasterLink has launched a brand new dedicated SEO site Dallas Search Engine Marketing this is a brand new site in initial development but we will be moving quickly to develop a huge data base of SEO and SEM articles.

Jack Spirko

Google Base

2005-11-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

On November 16th Google announced the launch of Google Base, a free online resource for the selling of products and services online.

It appears that Google Base is an extension of Google's existing content collection efforts such as our traditional web crawl system – as well as Google Sitemaps, Google Print and Google Video – all which enable content owners to easily make their information searchable via Google. According to Google "the goal of Google Base is to improve the overall quality and breadth of Google Search results by collecting even more information about a wider diversity of content".

There's not much in there yet but I'd highly recommend checking out Google Base at http://base.google.com/ and become familiar with how it all works. If you sell a product or service then this free tool stands to be a fantasitc addition to your marketing arsenal.

I also found this great article on Google Base by Search Engine Watch editor Danny Sullivan at http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3564506 in which he points out some of the problems he sees with this new service. I would suggest reading but I would also suggest that when doing so we should all keep in mind that Google Base is still in Beta and I would venture a lot of changes are still to come.

Jack Spirko

Search Engine Marketing Specialist

The MasterLink Group, Inc

Getting Your Site Out of the Google Sandbox

2005-11-14T09:33:00.000-07:00

By Jack Spirko – SEO Specialist
The MasterLink Group, Dallas Texas

So Just what is a “Google Sandbox”?

There has been a lot of talk about Google placing new sites in a “sandbox” away from the regular ranking index, to rank well in Google’s general organic listings a new site simply must get out of this sandbox phase as soon as possible. So how long does this period last if you don't take specific steps to speed it up? Generally from 120-180 days, that is up to a half a year just to start being given a fare shake. During this period, new sites tend to have low page rank or even a page rank zero however, they often rank well in MSN or Yahoo in spite of being shunned by Google.

To me personally this is just one big reason Google will continue to loose market share to Yahoo and MSN. People what the most germane content to their search and ruling out all the content put up over the past 180 days rules out a lot of content.

If that is true then just why did Google create the sandbox?

In theory sandbox prevents new sites using what Google sees as "tricks" to rapidly gain rankings. By filtering out sites that are new they force you to build real and relevant content and links over time. While this seems good in theory it basically assumes that your site has nothing relevant to contribute until it passes some random time period some person at Google simply decided was "long enough". As you can tell I am not a fan of the "sandbox". Of course as an SEO Specialist I guess that is natural but if you think about it with logic this does seem to be a bit like tossing the baby with the bath water does it not?

What triggers the sandbox?

According to the few people at Google, (such as googleguy) who will comment on the sandbox, “The sandbox is triggered mainly by unnatural linkage patterns. As evidenced by Goggle’s recent patent, Google has been keeping track of historical data for some time now. Google has an excellent understanding of what natural linkage and text looks like”. Which to me again personaly is Google simply stating, that we have decided that a new site is not capable of gaining quality links in any quantity quickly no mater how germane the content may be or what the quality of the site may be.

There are a few things you should be aware of to understand this issue.

First Your Anchor Text

One of the biggest signs of over optimization is your anchor text. If the majority of your anchor text is for the same keyword phrase, Google may penalize your site. Natural anchor text is varied and Google knows this. So if you want to optimize for lets say “low mortgage rates” make sure you use various anchors such as “get low mortgage rates” and “find low mortgage rates” as you build links both on and off site.

Next Your Incoming Links

Google’s algorithm knows if your incoming links are not natural if you just launched your site and you already have five thousand links to it. Google knows how many incoming links your site has, the rate of incoming link growth, the anchor text used, what ip addresses the links come from and many other signs of artificial efforts to inflate rankings to quickly will almost always lock the sandbox down harder.

Finally the location of your links and where they point to are of key importance.

The location of your off site links is very important natural links occur on many different sites hosted on different servers all over the country and the world if you have 100 links from a single IP address that is sure to trigger the filer and even after you are “out of the box” those links will still be discounted and do you little if any good. On where your incoming links are pointing to, if they all or even most point to your homepage, there is high probability you will indeed trigger the filter. So as you build links focus on 5-10 pages (at least) on your site and try to create a balance of home page and deep links.

So what can you do to avoid the sandbox?

In theory not all new sites are placed in the box though I tend to disagree with this. I personaly feel they all are or if you don’t trigger it that means you link popularity is so low it won’t matter, you still will not rank for any competitive terms. However you can indeed cut down your time in the box with a few simple steps.

First acquire offsite links slowly and avoid “link farms”. Work hard especially in the beginning to gain 20-30 links on very much “on topic” pages and vary your anchor text using the main phrases surrounded by different terms and even break your phrase up and leave a word out from time to time. By the time you gain 10-15 links to your home page try to have 20-30 “deep links” to various pages on your site. One of the biggest things you can do is the second you register your domain, place a temporary page up and get it indexed. If your site is going to be in initial development for say 1-2 months DO NOT WASTE THAT TIME get indexed fast and let Google see you continue to add content as soon as a page is decent get it added to your online web.

Even during construction try to obtain some off site links and start pushing links to your sub pages right away. Continue to develop your content and stay aware of all the important on page factors as well. We may not like that sandbox but it is here to stay for a while anyway.

Now here is the good news, no make that great news. In spite of the fact that Yahoo and MSN don’t at this time have a sandbox of their own the reality is if you take the approach I advise here you are going to do very well with both of them as well.