MasterLink Internet Marketing

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.

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

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.

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 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…"

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

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?!?

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.

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:

• MSN Team Gives First Public Demo of MSN adCenter 3.0 presented to DFW SEM
• Search grows by 75% Google's share tops 48%
• MSN Adcenter Taking Away Clicks from Yahoo Search Advertisers
• Is there a Rogue Google Data Center not Using the Sandbox?
• Google to Provide Hosting? - What's Next?
• MSN adCenter Ads soon to be on Xbox Live? You bet!
• Microsoft adCenter Support/Help Desk Phone Number
• Yahoo Index Updated
• Yahoo Search Marketing Upgrade in Beta Testing: Great for Advertisers
• MSN adCenter Launching New Features
• Pew Internet & American Life Project: Report on influence of the Internet
• Creating Web Pages & Driving Search Results Based on Analytics
• MSN adCenter Launches; MSN Contextual Advertising Coming Soon
• Free Yahoo Sitemap Creator: Converts Google Sitemap to Yahoo
• Yahoo Undergoing a Major Overhaul
• Blogging Below the Belt - Corporate Blog Support Services and Blog Monitoring Services
  
• Adwords PPC Advertisers Another Have Another Required Task
• Yahoo PPC and Microsoft Search Deal Comes to an End Today
• Benefits of Email Marketing
• Yahoo Delay's Search Marketing Upgrade
• An Intern's View on Search Engine Optimization
• Matt Cutts Video Blogs Some SEO Answers
• The Internet Marketers Creed
• Accessibility and Web Design with the Search Engines in Mind
  
• Yahoo and Google Fall Updates
• Yahoo Launches New Search Advertising Platform: “Panama”
• Hitwise Releases Top 10 Search Terms in 10 Categories
• Why I Love My Job in SEO
• My Top 10 Reasons to be Thankful for my Job at an SEO Company
• "nofollow" - Does it Really Work Like Google Claims?
• Relative or Absolute Links for Search Engine Optimization?
  

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:

1. NOT follow through to that page.
2. NOT count the link in calculating PageRank link popularity scores.
3. 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?

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.

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.

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 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.