Search Engine Marketing

Wouldn’t it be great if all the whiz-bang Web 2.0 interactive elements like Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX), widgets, Flash, RSS feeds, podcasts, video blogs and so forth were all search engine optimized? Unfortunately, that’s not the case. In fact, many of these technologies are inherently unfriendly to search engine spiders. So, if you intend to harness Web 2.0 technologies for increased conversion, improved usability and greater customer engagement, you’d better read on or you’ll end up missing the boat when it comes to better search engine rankings. The discipline of search engine optimization (SEO) is evolving to better meet the challenges presented by a

For Tom Tweedie, senior director of consumer direct marketing at Day-Timers, it was pretty easy to convince upper management that search engine optimization was necessary for the day planner cataloger because there are so many benefits to having a full-fledged SEO program. He shared several key “selling points” on paid search and SEO during a session at last week’s Internet Retailer Conference in San Jose, Calif. What you should communicate to your boss regarding the value of finding the right search partner: * the opportunity is huge; * search drives offline conversion; * direct mail drives online search; * you’ll acquire more new customers;

Problem: Pottery Barn wanted to build its natural search optimi-zation performance on major search engines for its three Web sites. Solution: It launched a six-month NSO program to gain greater online visibility for PotteryBarn.com, PotteryBarnKids.com and PBteen.com. Results: Total traffic, revenue and the number of indexed pages for all three properties surged, quickly surpassing Pottery Barn’s goals for the test. Pottery Barn, the crowned jewel of San Francisco-based Williams-Sonoma, knew its natural search optimization (NSO) practically was nonexistent. The multichannel marketer’s sites, PotteryBarn.com, PBteen.com and PotteryBarnKids.com could barely be found on the average search, except by brand name. Pottery

During a session at last week’s ACCM conference in Boston, Anne Vargo, e-commerce supervisor for B-to-B computer products cataloger CDW, and I both concluded that many of the best practices for B-to-B search are the same as consumer. These include comprehensive term lists, smart bidding, focused copy and landing pages, strong tracking and ongoing testing. But we described several unique challenges specific to large scale paid search. We discussed the $6.8 billion CDW’s search program of more than 100,000 active search ads and the “long tail” of search terms, noting that the 100,000 active ads are the “survivors” after testing more than 500,000. Vargo noted

As the power of search engines has become stronger, marketers have been spending more on both paid and natural searches seeking to get as much visibility on those sites as possible for their companies. Research has shown you often get more than 30 percent more clicks when you combine the paid and natural searches. But have you ever wondered whether the synergy between natural and paid search could also affect other performance measurements, including actions, orders and page views? That’s what digital marketing agency iCrossing set out to do in its recently released report, “Natural & Paid Search Symbiosis.” Data collected and analyzed by researchers

For many years, Jim Ruma, founder of the Ruma’s Fruit & Gift Basket World catalog, was a self-described “one-man band.” Eventually, however, as his company grew, he had to “let go” and allow employees to run the daily operations so he could plan the company’s next level. In a presentation Ruma gave during the recent NEMOA conference in Cambridge, Mass., Ruma outlined several tips for other entrepreneurial catalog owners also looking to take that next step. 1. Wean yourself off micromanaging. It’s hard for most entrepreneurial catalog founder/owners to let others do what they’ve done for years. But, as Ruma pointed out, “If you don’t

Catalogers and other search advertisers are justly concerned about click fraud. Click fraud is when a person (or computer) imitates a legitimate user clicking on a pay-per-click ad, without actual interest in the ad’s target. Like Justice Potter Stewart’s definition of pornography — “I know it when I see it” — click fraud escapes precise definition. To know when a click is fraudulent, one needs to know the clicker’s internal motivation for clicking or be able to prove the clicker was an automated ’bot. Most experts agree that few individual clicks are “good” or “bad.” Instead, investigators assign quality scores that indicate the probability

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an art as well as a science. As with any scientific discipline, it requires rigor. The results need to be reproducible, and you have to take an experimental approach — so not too many variables are changed at once. Otherwise, you won’t be able to tell which changes were responsible for the results. You can glean a lot about SEO best practices, latest trends and tactics from SEO blogs, forums and e-books. But it can be hard to separate the wheat from the chaff, to know with any degree of certainty that a claim will hold true. That’s where

In a recent survey by the Performics performance marketing unit of DoubleClick, most respondents said that customers turned to search engines earlier in the purchase process than in years past. Although the shift indicates a significant shift in shopping behavior, there wasn’t a notable shift in buying behavior, according to companies queried in the Performics 50 Index. Some of the most noteworthy findings include the following: 4 total sales from search engine marketing programs grew as search spend increased 4 total Q4 revenue attributed directly to search increased by 43 percent over Q4 2005 4 overall search-attributed sales for all of 2006 increased by

Many of the most successful Web marketers use site search applications known as “searchandising,” which customizes their search and navigation with merchandising. A new research report from Aberdeen Group for e-commerce software provider Mercado Software shows that online retailers that use searchandising tools can boost sales, conversion rates and average order values. Here are four tips from the report, “Web Site Search: Revenue in the Results,” to help catalogers and other online marketers achieve the best results possible using searchandising applications. 1. Customize, it pays off. A whopping 86 percent of companies who achieved moderate to extensive customization to fit their products or