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contentsfeatures columns

A

10 COVER STORY: Q&A WITH ARUN CHAUDHARYObama’s new media road director discusses how the video team tackled production challenges, measured their campaigns, and responded to data gathered throughout the 2008 presidential campaign. §

11 COVER STORY: Q&A WITH SES CHICAGO KEYNOTE DAN SIROKERObama’s deputy new media director reflects on how the 2008 race changed the political map, both in terms of fundraising and online engagement. Siroker also offers tips on how you can apply similar concepts to your own online campaigns. §

13 SES CHICAGO SNEAK PREVIEWFrom social to video and local to mobile, the new online marketing frontier is here. Learn how to connect the dots at next month’s Search Engine Strategies conference. Learn about the speakers, sessions, and workshops that make SES Chicago a must-attend event. §

32 GLOSSARYTerms and acronyms every search marketer should know. §

7 TEN REASONS YOU’LL SOON SPEND 25% MORE ON SEARCHDon’t worry — most of the changes are for the better. With economic recovery on the horizon, here’s a quick list of where you can expect to pay more — and why. §

22 GOOGLE FIGHTS BACK WITH NEW AND IMPROVED SERVICESA quick rundown of the innovations Google has introduced over the last couple of months — and how you stand to benefit.. §

8 SEARCH & BANNERS: WORKING TOGETHERIf display advertising is used in combination with search advertising, a marketer can reach customers again — even after they leave the search results page. §

24 IS YOUR SEM PROGRAM READY FOR ECONOMIC RECOVERY?Identify emerging trends, forecasting different scenarios, and having the automation in place to execute budget and bid strategies are the keys to delivering improved performance. §

21 BING LOCAL: A NEW FACE IN LOCAL SEARCHLocal businesses would be remiss to overlook Bing Local, the new face in the neighborhood. Here’s how to get listed. §

26 SOCIAL MEDIA’S IMPACT ON LOCAL SEARCHCompanies can use a variety of tactics to hone in on specific geo-targeted areas through social media and SEO on a local scale. §

28 CHANGING SHOPPING BEHAVIOR: RETHINKING SEARCHOnline-sponsored feeds are similar to proven brick-and-mortar approaches, and they also go beyond what’s possible with web search engine-based advertising. §

10

13

22

U.S. users streamed 41 percent more video content in August 2009 than they did during the same period in 2008. Source: NielSeN VideoceNSuS

A Find out more at ClickZ Stats.

41%

SES: Volume 3, Issue 7 | November 2009© 2009 INcIsIve medIa plc

enviroink.indd 1 10/1/08 10:44:38 AMPlease recycle this magazine!

A

Advertiser Index

Advertiser Page

7Search ......................................................... C3

Acquisio ........................................................... 5

AdGooroo ....................................................... 29

Brafton CustomNews ....................................... 4

iContact ........................................................... 3

iCrossing ....................................................... 23

Advertiser Page

iProspect ....................................................... C4

Rosetta .......................................................... 25

SearchEngineWatch.com ................................. 6

SmartBriefs ................................................... 30

Superpages.com ............................................ 27

Wiley Publishing ............................................ C2

Data:Mine Your Own Business

s n e a k previewses chicagod e c . 7 - 1 1

For information about advertising in future issues, please contact sales [email protected] or (212) 457-4993.

Matthew BaileyPresidentSiteLogic

Ron BelangerVP, Worldwide Agency SalesOmniture

Brett CrosbyGroup PPMGoogle

Bryan EisenbergBestselling authorbryaneisenberg.com

Jeff FergusonSr. Director, Online MarketingLocal.com

Andrew GoodmanPrincipalPage Zero Media

Mike Grehan, Co-ChairVP & Global Content DirectorIncisive Media

Anne KennedyManaging PartnerBeyond Ink

John MarshallCTOMarket Motive

Lee OddenCEOTopRank Online Marketing

Pauline OresSr. Marketing Mgr, Social MediaIBM Corporation

Erynn PetersenSr. Mgr, Ad Platform EvangelismMicrosoft

Randy PetersonSearch Marketing ManagerProcter & Gamble

Stewart Quealy, Co-ChairVP, Content DevelopmentIncisive Media

SES Advisory BoardComprised of both industry thought leaders and real-world practitioners, the Search Engine Strategies advisory board brings together top players in the field of interactive media and search. The team works to deliver continually cutting-edge search techniques, more integrated and relevant content, and professional development resources to SES attendees.

Drew Eastmead | Managing Editor

about SES MagazineSES Magazine is now in its third year and will reach a print circulation of more than

100,000 in 2009. In this issue, you’ll find articles on the latest trends in digital marketing, as well as a preview of our upcoming event, SES Chicago (Dec. 7-11). We are grateful to our contributors and readers alike, and we’re always interested to hear your feedback and learn about what topics you’d like to see (e-mail us at [email protected]).

For more information on advertising, subscribing, and contributing, or to view past issues, visit www.SearchEngineStrategies.com/ses-magazine.

You can also follow us on Twitter: @sesmag.

Staff

Managing EditorContributors

Drew EastmeadJulie Batten, Mary Bowling,John Federman, Aaron Finn, Byron Gordon, Greg Jarboe, Kevin Lee, Jessica Rowe, Andy Torgerson

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VP, Content DevelopmentSenior Program Director

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Andrew KatzElaine MershonElaine RomeoPeter WesterholmElizabeth HustonKatie O’HeaJoAnn SimonelliAngela ManChristian GeorgeouRebecca HolzLouise LabergeAleksey Gershin

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If you have a successful, profitable online business or an offline business that gets its leads from online sources, I’m confident you’ll be spending 25 percent more on paid search within

the next year. Not every marketer will, but the stronger ones will.

If you are like my clients and those of most agencies I’ve spoken to, chances are that your budget has been on a roller coaster ride this past year.

Reasons for budget cuts are as unique as the businesses and industries involved. But the advertisers who raised — or even more than doubled — their paid search budgets have a common vision that search market-ing will allow them to build their businesses effectively, efficiently, and profitably.

It’s amazing how few advertisers (on a percentage basis) are spending within 10 percent of what they spent last year; it’s likely that this volatility will continue. However, for marketers with resources to fund PPC search budgets delivering demon-strable profit and ROI, the budgets will be made available. Even in cases where inven-tory constraints would seem to limit spend-ing, many marketers will find themselves able to spend anyway.

Here are 10 reasons you’ll likely find yourself spending 25 percent more on search engine advertising over the next 12 months.

Search Engines Adjusting Their SERPs

Google’s recent shift of the right-rail ads closer to the organic results within the over-all search engine results page (SERP) is the tip of the iceberg. As the engines evolve, they will play with changes to color, back-grounds, and placement of ads to make the ads look fresh, different, and relevant. Click-through rates (CTR) will increase, so you’ll pay more if your budget supports it. If those clicks were profitable at a 1.6 percent CTR in position 3, then they should be equally profitable at a CTR of 1.9 percent. It’s just a matter of deciding that you want the extra clicks and making sure your budget settings let you purchase the profitable clicks.

Better Relevance EnginesBillions of searches make it difficult for

the search engines to pick the right ad from

thousands of possible matches with diverse match types, domains, and bids. All the search engines are working on how best to select a relevant ad for complex queries or queries for which there is no exact match bidder. For example, imagine how many ads within a shoe store advertiser or across all shoe sellers would possibly be relevant for the search query “men’s size 12 extra wide leather steel-toe waterproof work boots.”

Picking the most relevant ad is critical because irrelevant ads are far less likely to get clicked on.

Also, imagine whether an ad for a retailer whose footprint in a particular region might be expected to get a higher CTR and there-fore be more relevant for searchers within that area. While B&H Photo and J&R Music World sell nationally and even internation-ally, their brands are better known within a radius of New York City. Expect your ads to get served in more relevant SERPS, result-ing in higher CTRs.

You & Your Competitors: Improving Ads & Campaign Structures

The search engines use a carrot-and-stick approach to motivate advertisers and their agencies to improve campaign structure, ad copy, landing pages, and even load time. This means higher CTRs (or in some cases higher conversion rates), which result in higher reserve prices on cost per click (CPC).

Keyword Price EscalationYes, some sectors saw a drop in CPCs, but

every indication is that CPCs will continue to rise as advertisers improve conversion rates and start to factor in the more difficult to measure benefits of search engine adver-tising (including its influence over later purchases and lift in branding metrics).

Changes in Consumer Search Behavior

Studies show that consumers are search-ing more often. This behavior generates additional search query volume. Consumers may also be learning when the sponsored links are relevant.

Expansion of the Definition of Paid Search

If your site gets hundreds of thousands

of organic and paid search visitors, you will likely move into search retargeting sometime soon if you haven’t already. If you are already doing search retargeting, you may start using more than one vendor in an attempt to find the best mix of ROI and scale.

Conversion Rate ImprovementsAs mentioned earlier, if you improve

conversion rates, your reserve price per click goes up. Sometimes you’ll spend that reserve price; other times you’ll let the extra profit fall to the bottom line. Understanding and constantly retesting the elasticity of your marketplace will become key here.

Graphical & Rich-Media Enhances PPC SERP Elements

We’ve seen it with movie trailers, and Google, Yahoo, and Bing are all experiment-ing with a form of universal search for paid ads involving the intermingling of graphics or rich media into the SERP on a paid basis. Expect the CTR to go up when anything from a logo gleam/favicon all the way to a full product shot are introduced on the SERP.

Economic RecoveryIf we have an economic recovery, people

will search more and buy more online.

Search Engine WarsAs Microsoft heats up the war with

Google, it may actually lift the category of search along with promoting trials of its own product.

So, if you have a strong business and want to build it into an even stronger busi-ness using search, expect to have to shell out more over the next year, whether you like it or not. §

Kevin Lee, Didit co-founder and executive chairman, has been an acknowledged search engine marketing expert since 1995. His “Paid Search Strategies” column for ClickZ is read by thousands; his book, The Eyes Have It: How to Market in an Age of Divergent

Consumers, Media Chaos and Advertising Anarchy, has been widely praised; and he is a founding board mem-ber of SEMPO. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and daughter. @kevin_lee_qed

Ten Reasons You’ll Soon Spend 25% MoreOn Search By Kevin Lee

FOCUS: budget §


Search engine marketing (SEM) and pay-per-click (PPC) market-ing have exploded in popular-ity. Services such as Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search, and

Microsoft adCenter have grown into a $10 billion industry in just a few years.

So, why do advertisers love search adver-tising so much? Because it delivers predict-able results, straightforward targeting, and clear metrics to demonstrate return on adver-tising spend (ROAS).

As a result, the search ad has become king of the online advertising disciplines—and even a standalone strategy, as many businesses have stayed away from display advertising because of its perceived cost and complexity.

But display advertising has recently undergone a dramatic transformation, with advances in technology that put it within reach of all advertisers. Display ads are now as easy and cost-effective as search ads, and come with similar metrics that advertisers need to prove ROAS.

Display advertising also provides value that search advertising can’t, including the ability to build brand awareness, scale with growth, and reach new customers when they aren’t actively searching.

Fortunately, closing the online marketing loop is incredibly easy: Combine search and display advertising into one cohesive effort. This integrated approach enables advertisers to cast the widest net across online custom-ers, systematically driving up ROAS.

The Search for More CustomersSearch ads perform extremely well when

properly managed. However, lean budgets have forced advertisers to place their search ad programs under the microscope. Specifi-cally, they’ve found that search ads have four main areas of weakness:

The search ad market is a busy, §competitive place. More than one million companies use search ads, compared to less than 50,000 companies running display ads. This makes popular keywords very expensive. Search campaigns don’t scale as §well as previously thought. Search ads are inherently limited: they only appear on a given search engine site, and they rely on a customer typing in the specific keywords an advertiser has selected. Once you’ve locked down your keywords and paid for prominent placement, further investments show diminishing returns.

Search ads lack branding and §awareness benefits. The inability to use logos, images, and other visual elements makes differentiating your business much more difficult.Search ads only work when §customers are searching. And they’re only searching about 5 percent of the time, according to the Online Publishers Association’s Internet activity index. The rest of the time (95 percent), customers are browsing websites — usually sites that feature display advertising.

Display ads can fill the voids created by search. They can scale with a company’s growth, build brand awareness (with color, images, logos, and other visual elements), and reach new customers when they aren’t actively searching.

Bringing Down Costs for Display Advertising

In the past, display ads have required significant creative resources to produce. Testing and optimizing creative content across different banner sizes has accounted for a large part of this expense, prolonging the launch period of a campaign.

working together to boost return on advertising spend By Aaron Finn

If display advertising is used together with search advertising, a marketer can reach customers again — even after they leave the search results page. This ability makes display ads an especially attractive option for companies unable to compete for priority search page ranking.

search & Banners


Negotiating multiple media buys with vari-ous publishers and networks also takes time, and advertisers have often faced prohibitive minimum spends. Combined, such hurdles have prevented many businesses from look-ing beyond search advertising — until now.

Advances in display advertising technol-ogy have minimized these obstacles, and now even smaller advertisers can take advan-tage of tested creative templates, central-ized access to ad networks, and analytics to prove ROAS (similar to those used in search campaigns).

Bigger companies that already had the resources to use display advertising are also benefitting, because building and testing creative is now faster than ever.

Mixing Ad Mediums for Maximum Results

So can you really get better results from using display advertis-ing along with your current search adver-tising efforts? Abso-lutely, according to the latest data.

The Online Publisher’s Asso-ciation released a study in June 2009 titled “The Silent Click: Build-ing Brands Online,” which examined effec-tive ways to measure the impact of branding campaigns — as opposed to the click-based metrics of services like Google AdWords. In partnership with comScore, the asso-ciation looked at 80 of the largest branding campaigns across 200 of the most visited sites.

They analyzed the behavior of consum-ers exposed to banner ads over a month, measuring 1) searches conducted related to the advertisers’ brands, 2) the traffic driven to the advertisers’ sites, and 3) consumer spending related to the advertisers’ brands.

For consumers exposed to branded display advertising campaigns, the research found that one in five conduct related searches and one in three visit the brands’ sites.

Users also spent more than 50 percent more time than the average visitor on these sites and consumed more pages. In fact, these users spent about 10 percent more

money online overall, and significantly more on product categories related to the adver-tised brands.

While the end goal of search ads and banner ads is the same — to drive sales and awareness — these two approaches target customers in very different ways.

Once a customer leaves a search results page, they leave those search ads behind, too. And if a company is not listed on the first page of results, the chance of being overlooked is high.

However, if display advertising is used together with search advertising, a marketer can reach that same customer again, after

they leave the search results page. This ability makes display ads an especially attractive option for companies unable to compete for priority search page ranking.

Results On Full DisplayThe Atlas Institute agrees that search

and display advertising perform better together than when used independently. The Institute’s “Atlas Digital Marketing Insight Report” found that online and offline purchases increased when consumers were exposed to integrated campaigns.

The same research found that display ads improve search performance, since interest

generated from display advertising carries over to consumer search behavior.

For example, the study showed a 22 percent increase in click-through rate (CTR) when companies run search and display campaigns together, as compared to the same programs alone. The data also showed an increase in related trademark term searches (such as product name), and higher click-to-conversion rates in search campaigns, making search clicks more valuable when complemented by display.

In a related study, search marketing firm iProspect found that more than half of Inter-net users actively respond to online display advertising. Their research found that the same number of users respond to display advertising by performing a search as those who directly click on a banner — and about

50 percent of Internet users perform searches related to banners they have

previously seen.

Display Advertising Is Here to Stay

All this research makes it clear that display advertising can no longer be ignored by businesses building their brand and sales pipeline on the web. And while it can be used as an alternative strategy to search advertising, display advertising combined

with search can deliver a particu-larly powerful impact.Display ads don’t just continue

the sales process started by search engine marketing. They also increase

the overall effectiveness of search ads, and they give advertisers a unique opportu-

nity to make a branding impact on potential customers — a key method for driving future purchases. If you’re using search advertising, don’t miss the boat: Integrate banners into your approach to maximize your results. §

Aaron Finn is president and CEO of Seattle-based AdReady, a technology company that makes display advertising accessible to advertisers of any size. The com-pany’s unique approach helps businesses build powerful online display campaigns based on prov-

en creative and media plans, dramatically increasing a marketer’s return on advertising spend (ROAS). Prior to AdReady, Finn launched ia Interactive Inc., a traditional online advertising agency. He was also a founding ex-ecutive of Classmates Online.

FOCUS: ad strategy §

Customer

Search Portal

Gateway Website

Your Company

display ad clickthrough to website

search ads

online search for“alaska vacations” Competition

Customers have a direct path to your website through your search ads. But if a customer clicks

on a search result instead of your ad, bannerads at the website they go to can steer them

back in your direction.


Just after the 2008 election, Jose Anto-nio Vargas wrote an online column for The Washington Post (Nov. 14, 2008) entitled “The YouTube Presidency.” In it, he quoted Steve Grove, head of news and politics at YouTube, who said, “The Obama team has written the playbook on how to use YouTube for political campaigns. Not only have they achieved impressive mass — uploading over 1,800 videos that have been viewed over 110 million times total — but they’ve also used video to cultivate a sense of community amongst supporters.”

A key member of the Obama team was new media road director Arun Chaudhary, and I recently asked him some questions for my book, YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day. Here are excerpts from the interview.

Greg Jarboe: Who was your target audience?Arun Chaudhary: Our target audience was voters — all kinds of voters. While YouTube community folks and political activists were probably vocal commenters on our work, I don’t think it would make sense to think of them as a target audience. We wanted to appeal to a wide vari-ety of folks. When you have a candidate as exciting and dynamic as Barack Obama was, the most important thing you can do is get him in front of as many people as possible. We used to say the YouTube or live stream hits of his speeches were like adding thousands of extra seats

in the room. Especially in the early states, the sort of people you want to watch an event are folks who couldn’t physically make it for some reason. Rather than fish-ing for viral success, you’d rather have real prospective voters see your candidate make his or her case.

GJ: Did you optimize your videos for YouTube? Were there search terms that you

put in your title, description, and tags?AC: We tried to be very specific. Location and date of the speech was very important because you really hope that folks who weren’t physically able to make the rally are able to find the footage. Topic is very impor-tant as well, because a lot of folks looking for political content online are hoping to

find answers to their specific questions (what is the candi-date’s position on health care?) in that way; the candidate’s websites are very much a modern update

of campaign literature, or maybe even a bit like the voting guides that various groups used to publish close to election times.

You really can’t be too specific with your titling, though of course there are only so many words you can actually have in the title itself. One of the format rules that was designed and enforced by Kate Albright-Hanna for BarackObama.com was that the opening card for every video would be the date and location. I remember thinking that it was maybe a little too austere, but she was absolutely right. If you lived in Keokuk, Iowa, and a friend forwarded you a video link, the first thing you would see when you clicked on it would be Nov. 20, 2007,

Q&A with Arun ChaudharyBy Greg Jarboe

{From videos to fundraising,

DATA: MINE YOUR

234567892345678924567892567834578942

About Arun: A key member of the 2008 campaign, Arun has been called “Obama’s video guru” by Michael Learmonth of Silicon Alley Insider (July

2008). Chaudhary’s title on the campaign was new media road director of Obama for America (OFA). Today, he is the White House videographer.

There was an entire section of the new media department devoted to

analyzing all the data.

A continued on page 12


Obama’s new media team honed in on web analytics}

OWN BUSINESS

234567892345678924567892567834578942 COVER STORY / FOCUS: analytics §

SES Chicago 2009keynote speakerDan Siroker will deliver his presentation on Wednesday,Dec. 9, at 9 a.m.

Q&A with Dan SirokerBy Byron Gordon

About Dan: During the presidential transition, Dan was the deputy

new media director, responsible for strategic planning of the administration’s use of Internet and technology. He led several online initiatives on change.gov, including a way for the American people to publicly comment on proposed policy, ask questions, or submit ideas — all of which could be voted on and went directly to President Obama and his cabinet.

Previously, Dan led the analytics team for the 2008 Obama presidential campaign and served as a senior member of the larger new media team. He led a team of software engineers and analysts responsible for optimizing the effectiveness of the campaign’s online operations that ended up raising over half a billion dollars and registering more than 2 million voters.

Earlier, Dan was a product manager for Google Chrome, the open-source web browser from Google. He also worked as a product manager for Google AdWords. He recently founded CarrotSticks, a startup using technology to help kids learn.

Byron Gordon: The number of unique visitors to the Barack Obama campaign website — almost 140 million — trounced the number that John McCain’s campaign website received. How and why do you account for this? Obama had 2.4 million Facebook friends compared to half a million for McCain. How did you use analytics to help facilitate these numbers?Dan Siroker: It is true that the number of unique visitors to the Obama campaign website, nearly 140 million, was far greater than McCain’s campaign website, which had roughly 30 million unique visitors. However, what’s staggering to me is to look at these

numbers in perspective. The Obama campaign website had twice as many unique visitors than the number of people who voted for John McCain. Sure, some of the folks who voted for McCain prob-ably visited www.baracko-bama.com, and the 140 million number also includes those who are not eligible to vote — either because they were too young or lived in a foreign country. But the point remains: tons and tons of people came to our website. If you compare the number of Facebook friends or YouTube views we had to McCain’s, you would find a consis-tent factor of four to five times the difference.

As much as I’d like to think our team was responsible for this huge online engagement gap, the truth is we weren’t. All we could do was take advantage of opportunities to grow and foster this community. The fundamental force driving this was the tremendous amount of interest and grassroots support Barack Obama

had online. In my talk at SES Chicago, I’ll talk specifically about some of the things we did to take advantage of this interest and translate it into real online engagement.

BG: The McCain campaign also watched their own online advertising diligently and employed various metrics and analytics to measure and optimize. They, too, ran a very sophisticated online ad campaign, particu-larly when it came to search. Do you think the McCain camp used analytics in a way that was smart? What did you observe and/or

learn from the McCain campaign about how they ran their analytics? DS: We focused on taking advantage of the opportunities in front of us and making deci-sions based on data that would optimize the

success metrics we defined for ourselves. I’m sure they followed a similar philosophy to try to optimize their success metrics. We didn’t learn much from how the McCain campaign used analyt-

ics because frankly, we were focused on optimizing our own campaign, not analyzing theirs.

BG: Talk to us about the e-mail that David Plouffe (Obama’s chief campaign manager) sent that raised more than $10 million for the campaign. Why did this e-mail reso-nate so much? And did your team have any preconceived notion about which type of e-mail was going to be the most successful and how it should be targeted to the various constituencies?DS: On Sept. 3, 2008, David Plouffe sent out an e-mail to our supporters with the subject, “What you just saw.” The e-mail was a response to what had happened that night at the Republican National Convention, where Sarah Palin mocked Barack Obama’s experience as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago by saying, “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘commu-nity organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.” This was the capstone on a very negative Republican National Conven-tion that left many Americans fuming. All they needed was a channel to let out their outrage. This e-mail offered a call-to-action

_

A continued on page 12

The biggest takeaway I’d liketo offer to future campaigns

is to instill a data-drivenculture in which decisions

are based on facts.


Keokuk, Iowa, and immediately know why it was relevant to you.

GJ: What was the most compelling video content of the campaign?AC: I would have to go with “A More Perfect Union.” We had consistent calls from the public to put up speeches in their entirety. As time went on, we found that some of the effort of finding specific clips and producing them with cut shots was better spent trying to get entire speeches and town halls online. Folks really seemed to respond to being allowed to see the candidate unedited. In a sense, they wanted to see the candidates in the raw and make their own decision — not to feel like they were being fed media. With a candidate as compelling as Barack Obama was, it made a lot of sense to let them see him in this manner. The more people who actually saw him speak and hear his views, the more likely they were to vote for him. With a different candidate one might need to take a different strategy, but for us, Barack Obama was always the star; we were just the backup singers.

GJ: What production challenges did you face and overcome?AC: The production challenges were immense. We would often arrive at events with about 10 minutes to go before a speech would start and need to set up our cameras

and live-streaming computer as fast as we could. If everything went right, it was just about possible. Editing was just as chal-lenging. The road team edited in the field on laptops and uploaded with aircards. On an airplane, you can only upload to about 30,000 feet before losing all signal, so time was always of the essence. The watchword on our team was workflow. Because we were doing so many events and traveling constantly, we had a lot of opportunity to improve the workflow, see what order things should be done in, what tasks the computer could handle doing at the same time, figure out how to fill what little time we had to its fullest. Redundancy also helped. Every road team member had a camera, a laptop, and an aircard. That way we weren’t reliant on any one person to get the job done; we were all able to do what we needed to do. It was defi-nitely a process. By the end of the campaign, it was taking us minutes to upload what was taking hours at the beginning. There was no magic formula, it was just experience. The thing about doing a process over and over is that eventually you get better. A tip I would definitely offer others is to always worry about the audio first; once you have that, everything else is fixable. Bad video can seem like a choice, while bad audio is always a mistake.

GJ: How did you measure your video campaign? Did you use YouTube Insight,

TubeMogul, or other analytics for online video? What feedback did these tools give you that led you to change what you were doing?AC: We did pay attention to the analytics. In fact, there was an entire section of the new media department devoted to analyzing all the data. Seeing that folks would actu-ally watch entire speeches and not just clips was very useful, especially as it is slightly counter-intuitive.

Also finding out that our core audience was much older than the 18 to 25 demo-graphic was very interesting. According to the YouTube Insight tool, our main audience was 40 to 50, which is what you would expect from normal political media, but not neces-sarily online. It has certainly reinforced my notion that online political video was essen-tially the modern replacement for the printed campaign guides of the past. I think a lot of folks went to all the websites to compare and contrast the candidates’ views and make an informed decision. §

Greg Jarboe is the president and co-founder of SEO-PR, a search engine optimization firm, public relations agency, and video production company. Greg is a frequent speaker at Search Engine Strategies and is the news search, blog search, and PR correspondent for the search engine marketing news blog at Search Engine Watch. He is regarded as a pioneer and lead-ing authority on online publicity. He book, YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour A Day, was recently pub-lished by Wiley.

[ CHAUDHARY fRom pAge 10 ]

to serve as that channel: “Enough is enough. Make your voice heard loud and clear by making a donation right now.” That call-to-action worked. We raised over $10 million in less than 24 hours.

BG: You previously thought that videos would be the best way to encourage people to sign up for the Obama campaign, but that proved wrong. What are the lessons learned from this for future political campaigns and the use of social media?DS: We ran a multi-variate experiment to determine what would be the most compel-ling form of media and button on our splash page to persuade users to sign up for our e-mail list. We tried three different videos, three different photos, and four different buttons. Turns out the results surprised us all — all of the videos did worse than all of the photos by a huge margin. As interesting as these results were, the bigger lesson we learned from this experiment was to always question assumptions. It turns out the biggest opportunities for optimization tend to be the areas in which decisions had been based on opinions — not facts. BG: How much did you factor in geography? Was it a given that the most populous state, such as California and New York, would

contribute the most money to the campaign? And how did that factor in your analytics? DS: Campaigns rely heavily on geography when it comes to targeting and persuasion. When it comes to web analytics, we only scratched the surface of what we could achieved by optimizing by geography. Geography-based segmentation is one of the areas in which there is a huge opportunity to segment users and experiment in order to improve the user experience and optimize our success metrics. BG: As Obama’s new media director, you used analytics to better target Obama’s constituency base, and the end result was you raised more money than McCain. What should future presidential campaigns take from this experience? DS: The biggest takeaways I’d like to offer to future presidential campaigns is to instill a data-driven culture in which decisions are based on facts. Often in large organizations, especially political organizations, decisions get made by “playing politics:” who you are, who you know, who owes you a favor, etc. The more an organization can focus on data and facts, the better it will do. Campaigns of the future need to empower all its staff — from volunteer to field director — to freely question assumptions and make decisions based on data.

BG: Your latest venture is CarrotSticks (www.carrotsticks.com). What is the origin behind this initiative? What are current analytics telling you about how well this website is being used by kids to help them do better at math?DS: CarrotSticks is a social and fun way for kids to practice and compete in math. Parents can give their child an edge in math by sign-ing them up. My ultimate success metric for CarrotSticks is whether it helps kids love learning math. We tested this metric in our most recent classroom trial in a third grade class at an elementary school in Palo Alto, Calif. The kids used it for one hour prior to the recess bell. The teacher told the kids that it’s time for recess, but if anyone wants to stay in the classroom and spend five more minutes on CarrotSticks that they could. Not a single kid went to recess. They all wanted to stay to keep playing. They loved challenging each other to competitions and earning “carrots.” In terms of other quanti-fiable success metrics, to date, over 20,000 math problems have been solved and grow-ing fast. §

Byron Gordon has more than seven years’ experience working in public relations. Today, he works for SEO-PR with a focus on blogger outreach campaigns, social media, and facilitating Web 2.0 projects for clients in-cluding SEMPO, Nokia, and goBalto. Byron was recent-ly appointed VP of social media programs at SEO-PR.

[ SIRoKeR fRom pAge 10 ]

SOCIAL

PPC

VERTICAL

MOBILE

VIDEO

SEO

SEMANTIC

VIRAL

ANALYTICS

LOCAL

ORGANIC

B2B

SEM

DECEMBER 7-11 | HILTON CHICAGO

www.SearchEngineStrategies.com/chicago


SOCIAL

PPC

VERTICAL

MOBILE

VIDEO

SEO

SEMANTIC

VIRAL

ANALYTICS

LOCAL

ORGANIC

B2B

SEM

DECEMBER 7-11 | HILTON CHICAGO



CONNECTLearn to use aLL dimensions of search

Social, mobile, local, video, and more: Discover how they’re connected, where search is headed, and where you need to be.

Search Engine Strategies Chicago puts you in front of the experts who can help you determine which emerging technologies and channels fit your goals, and which are just hype.

Search Engine Strategies is the pioneer of search education. It’s the conference where industry visionaries and leaders gather each year to discuss the newest trends, share insights, and present the strategic action plans you need.

DECEMBER 7–11REGISTER TODAY

DISCount ExpIrES 11/20/09See page 19 for more information.

& SAVE $200


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Keynote Speakers

Jeff Jarvis is of the most provocative and optimistic voices weighing in on the future of media, technology, and business today. He writes about these topics and more on his blog, Buzzmachine.com. Jeff has been at the forefront of the media world for over two decades.

peter Morville is acknowledged as a father of information architecture. He has authored the best-selling books, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web and Ambient Findability. As a key innovator, peter will be bringing ideas on the changing nature of organic and paid search, ensuring attendees with go away with new strategies for implementing their marketing programs.

Dan Siroker, has been recognized for his prominent role during one of the most historic presidential races in recent history. His ability to hone analytic data, optimizing the effectiveness of the obama presidential campaign’s online operations ultimately half a billion in donations, goes without question.

Jeff JarvisAuthorWhat Would Google Do?

Peter morvillepresidentSemantic Studios

dan sirokerFormer Deputy new Media DirectorObama Presidential TransitionFounderCarrotSticks

tracksmonday, dec. 7Search FundamentalsStart at the beginning: Sessions like Site Architecture, Messaging, and PPC-SEO-SEM alphabet soup will get you started on building a successful web presence.

Blended Search ResultsRecent advancements in search result multiplicity guarantee that the world of search and marketing will be changing forever. Discover where optimization across video, images, blogs, and feeds in blended search results may require changes in your marketing strategies.

Analytics, Conversions & AttributionThe power of search lies in the numbers, so our analytics and measurement track breaks down the complicated walls of conversions and testing to help you gain the most value in your campaigns.

The State of SearchSearch remains the fastest-growing and most cost-effective medium to market new products and services. Our experts will help keep you ahead of the game as industry pioneers discuss the future of search.

Search on the EdgeWhat’s next in the search landscape? From social to video and mobile to local, we’ll explore the new online marketing frontier.

tuesday, dec. 8Search FundamentalsContinue your learning experience with the basics, from copywriting boot camp to working with your IT depart-ment to reach your business goals.

News & AdvertisingGreat search strategies are consistently built around great content. Establish a great story through your marketing messages that will be memorable, meaningful, and translatable into targeted traffic.

Search for the Small BusinessIn the world of big business and the need to market smarter, the little guy often gets squeezed. Here we help small businesses owners market smarter and expand their online visibility.

Geek SpeakNot just for the search novice, veterans have much to learn too, and we have the industry pioneers to help satisfy their cravings to solve their technical nightmares.

Clickz/OMSGet down to the nitty gritty of social media in our ClickZ/OMS Track. Get help on creating the next big viral marketing campaign, manage all the conversations your customers are having, and hear the newest debate on black-hat versus white-hat marketing.

Wednesday, dec. 9In-HouseOrganizing your marketing efforts can often be the differ-ence between your most successful campaigns yet, and wasting marketing dollars on an ineffective campaign. Manage your brand reputation, organize your SEO/PPC efforts, and bring all your search activity in house.

HybridLearn how to best mix all the tools available to you, from SEO to PPC.

Advanced IssuesNot for the faint of heart, this track will take your search campaigns to the next level. Uncover the quality fac-tors that may be most affecting your rankings, study advanced auction theory and campaign expansion tech-niques, and employ the latest in eye-tracking research.

Vertical, Retail, B2BExplore the latest trends in these rapidly-changing verticals and more.

ClinicsDespite all the sessions, speakers, and workshops, indi-vidual marketers will always have their specific problems and issues. Our clinics track puts you in front of the pros to help you work through your toughest questions one-on-one.


Search Fundamentals TrackIntroduction to Search Engine MarketingThis session will provide a clear and concise overview of the key concepts involved in search engine marketing. This is a must-attend basic session for anyone new to Search Engine Strate-gies events.

Keyword ResearchLearn how to target the right terms in your paid and organic search market-ing, and where these keywords should be used.

Link-Building BasicsDiscover how search engines rely on link analysis as an important com-ponent for ranking web pages. Learn how to increase traffic to your site by building quality links in an appropriate manner.

DIY SEM: Why You Should Recon-siderThis lively discussion will cover the pros and cons of DIY SEM so that you will have to tools you need to make your own informed decision.

Customer Insights via Search Engine ToolsWith the volume of information avail-able, search engines can tell you a lot about your customers. This session will cover how to use search engines and search engine research tools to answer critical questions like what your customers are looking for, how their needs are changing and more.

Successful Information ArchitectureThis session will provide a fresh look at how to successfully architect your site for search engines and how specific page elements and design technolo-gies may impact your ability to gain good organic listings.

Copywriting: 45 Minute Boot CampCopywriting requires special skills in the search marketing world. Our experts share their top tips to maximize your search campaign performance by choosing the right words to connect with customers and bots alike.

Paid Search 101Every major search engine offers a paid placement program. Learn what’s available in this session that is espe-cially geared toward beginners, with details on programs from major provid-ers and advice on how to succeed.

How to Speak Geek: Working With Your IT DepartmentOur master translators offer specific

strategies for getting the teams to play together on projects related to usability, SEO, paid search measurement, and more. We promise to get beyond the level of “buy the IT team some beers” (if you don’t already know that, you’re cooked).

Blended Search Results TrackMixed Media SERPsSearch result multiplicity is not a new phenomenon, but recent advancements guarantee that the world of search and marketing will be changing forever. Learn how new blended search results pages are affecting your marketing strategy, and how prevalent they are becoming with users.

YouTube & Video OptimizationThis solo presentation by the author of “YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day” will provide you with proven, practical guidelines for developing and implementing video marketing for your organization.

Images & OptimizationJoin us as we explore enhanced image search along with image links, geo-tags, accessibility issues, alt attributes, surrounding text, filtering concerns, file sizes, image-specific search engines and a host of other important consider-ations for capturing targeted traffic.

SEO Through Blogs & FeedsNot yet running a blog? Not syndicating your content through web feeds? Then learn more about the unique advan-tages blogs and feeds offer to search engine optimization.

Analytics, Conversion & Attribution TrackSearch AnalyticsCut to the chase! This session will teach you to use analytics tools to get the specific answers you need about your search marketing campaign’s economic performance, your users’ on-site behaviors, and how to look for major red flags in traffic patterns.

How to Turn Your Web Analytics into a Money-Making MachineIn this session, each panelist will provide you with 3 solid tips to make money from your web analytics and answer questions about everything you’ve wanted to know about web analytics but were afraid to ask.

Meaningful SEO Metrics: Going Beyond the NumbersThis panel will discuss a myriad of ways to move beyond Page Rank, indexed pages or linked sites and into metrics that can make you a hero and,

better still, get your budget increased to a respectable level.

Why Does Search Get all the Credit?This session will focus exclusively on gaining a better understanding of how, when, and where to attribute revenue gains.

The State of Search TrackSearch Industry TodayThe paid search marketplace has rock-eted from virtually zero to more than $10 billion in the past decade. This panel takes a hard look at the current value proposition of search and how we got to where we are today.

Search: Where to Next?When it comes to search marketing, none are better at it than our veteran panel of industry insiders. Join us for an illuminating discussion as we peek into the next generation of digital marketing and predict what search might look like in the following five to 10 years.

Search & the Integrated Marketing MixThis session will cover the extent to which search efforts are integrated with a variety of offline marketing channels; the big disconnect between search marketer strategy and search user behavior, the specific search marketing and integration techniques in use today, and obstacles to the integration process.

Beyond Googling: 5 Years Later it’s a Different AudienceThis session is a long-view look at weak signals and trends that appear to point in new directions.

Search on the Edge TrackSearch: A Real Time Paradigm?Search engines strive to have the most up-to-date content on the web, indexed and ready for display to searchers. Fresh content is a high priority for search marketers and advertisers to create and optimize. These experts know how to take you there and will suggest the best ways to become visible.

How Search Marketing Can Be Used to Build Overseas TradeThis panel will explain how to identify export opportunities using keyword research and how to exploit them using either search engine optimization or pay per click.

What’s the Link Between Search and Social?Every day the lines between search

and social media get blurrier and blurrier. In this panel discussion, we’ll learn how Coca-Cola is managing its presence across these converging channels. And the head of search for Organic will share his point-of-view on how future search algorithms will incorporate the social graph.

News & Advertising TrackStoryteller MarketingThis session will show you how the framework of storytelling can be used to deliver real advertising results by generating content that communicates. You’ll learn the five basic story types, how to analyze the stories around your brand, and how to create a solid strategy for generating, changing, or renewing great brand stories.

News Search OptimizationIn this session, we look at how to make use of press releases and news content to tap into the power of news search.

Small Business TrackSmall Voices, Big Impact: Social Media for the Little GuyFind out how small companies with even smaller budgets can freely tap the world of social media to improve business and increase sales.

Search on a DimeCome and hear the tips and tricks that will help you pick up the valu-able traffic being left behind by your competitors. Learn from the best how to maximize your exposure via organic, paid search and local search without emptying your wallet.

Turning Simple Change into Big ProfitIf you’re a small concern, you are likely leaving business on the table due to easily corrected mistakes in your online marketing plan. This panel will also share free tips and tools on cheap and easy campaign testing.

Geek Speak TrackDevelopments in Information Re-trieval on the WebThis session will showcase practical examples that search marketers and web developers can use to begin par-ticipating in the linked data movement.

Landing Page Optimization: The Seven Deadly SinsThis session looks at ways to test and tweak your landing pages to get that conversion. Note: The session is designed for those who are already fa-miliar with how paid placement works.

Sessions SAVE 15% when you use your keycode at SearchEngineStrategies.com/chicago


Duplicate Content & Multiple Site IssuesMore and more site owners are concerned that they might get penal-ized accidentally or overtly because of duplicate content. This session looks at the issues and explores solutions.

Follow the Carrot: Cool Mobile AppsApp developers and experts explain how mobile apps hook users, dem-onstrate their rapid growth trajectory, and explore what might be in store for the future.

ClickZ/OMS TrackIgniting Viral CampaignsThis session unveils the secrets of Web 2.0 techniques and technologies that enable companies to stand out and be talked about.

In-House TrackBringing PPC In-HouseCheck www.searchenginestrategies.com/chicago/agenda.html for more informationBringing SEO In-HouseIn this session you’ll learn what you’ll need to do in order to manage a suc-cessful in-house SEO program that runs smoothly and successfully.

Hybrid TrackPPC or SEO? The Ultimate Search Marketing BattleJoin us for this no-holds barred session

where the SEO proponents square off against the PPC evangelists. Look for tons of action in this bout.

Facebook Rockstars RoundTable: Marketing For the Other InternetFor the first time at any conference, this session brings together a true lineup of big brand and small business marketers who’ve experienced ground-breaking Facebook success.

Black Hat, White Hat: Does it Really Matter Anymore?Join us for a no-holds-barred Round-table that will include an discussion of the relevancy of the black and white hat issues. You will hear veteran search engine marketers disclose some of their favorite search engine optimiza-tion and marketing tips, tricks, and secrets and there will be lots of time for dialogue and discussion.

Advanced Issues TrackAdvanced Paid Search Brain CandyThis solo session covers campaign expansion techniques, advanced ad testing, advanced auction theory, the proper use of relevant analytics re-ports, ideas for bid rules and campaign automation, techniques for acting on seemingly inconclusive data, and more.

Ads in a Quality Score WorldIn this panel, we’ll take a closer look at quality factors and give tips on

increasing the perceived relevancy of your campaigns.

How to Cut Your Corporate Budget Without Cutting Leads or SalesIf you’ve been asked to cut back on online marketing, and you’re wonder-ing how or where to cut, this session is for you. You will learn how to cut back without cutting sales or leads, meanwhile increasing business at a higher profit.

Eye Tracking Research UpdateThis panel will discuss the latest eye-tracking research including an update to User Centric’s “Eye Tracking Bing Versus Google” and will also cover new ground in regard to eye tracking of SERPs and the latest on heatmaps.

Vertical, Retail, B2B TrackAdvanced B2B Search MarketingLearn how to turn a complex buying process into an opportunity and com-petitive advantage for your firm. This session will cover: the buying cycle, ways to reach prospects, and tips on generating leads.

The Oprah Winfrey Litigation: What Affiliate Marketers MUST KnowAttendees will learn how to identify these issues and develop policies and procedures to keep informed about the current technology, marketing strate-gies and regulatory compliance.

Clinics TrackAd Copy & Conversion ClinicThis interactive session takes volun-teers from the audience and examines their websites live to provide general feedback about improving their landing pages and conversion rates.

E-Commerce Site ClinicThis interactive session takes retailers and ecommerce merchants from the audience and examines their websites live to provide feedback about improv-ing them to gain more traffic from search engines and increase online conversion.

Pay-Per-Click Congruency ClinicThis clinic will review PPC campaigns offered up by audience volunteers, from ad to landing page and beyond, suggesting improvements at each step along the way.

Site ClinicThis interactive session takes volun-teers from the audience and examines their websites live to provide general feedback about improving them to gain more traffic from search engines.

Your keycode begins with “KEYCH” and is located above your name on the mailing label, found on the magazine cover. Sessions

training Workshops: thursday & friday, dec. 10 -11

Thursday, Dec. 10SEO WorkshopA search-engine friendly website is a user-friendly, search-friendly, and persuasive site that converts visitors into buyers.

Landing Page Testing Hands-On: Developing Your Action PlanGet tips and tricks that will help you pick up valuable traffic left behind by your competitors. Maximize exposure without emptying your wallet.

Advanced Keyword ResearchAttendees will explore the tools avail-able for identifying, researching, and zeroing in on the right keywords for your SEO or PPC campaign

Social Media and Your BusinessSocial media is happening to your business whether you want it to or not. You owe it to your business to un-derstand the social media landscape. Consumers, customers, and clients are demanding accessibility.

Friday, Dec. 11Bruce Clay: Search EngineOptimization TrainingFocusing on white-hat search engine-compliant SEO methods, the course covers techniques allowing you to change your sites while avoiding techniques that will get you in trouble. Others who have completed the ex-tended course have raved about it, and this training will be no exception. Get a clear view of the techniques required to beat your competition.

Online Marketing Institute:Integrating Search Across All Online Marketing EffortsSES has partnered with OMI to provide the most comprehensive day of hands-on education around. Our full-day workshop consists of four subject-spe-cific modules designed to help market-ing professionals better integrate their search efforts with the other major online marketing disciplines of website usability, analytics, demand generation, and social media.

the Venue: hilton chicagoThe Hilton Chicago hotel has achieved an unprecedented fusion of historic luxury and contemporary amenities. When you first step into our magnificent lobby, with its grand scale and splendid detail, you might think you’ve transported back to the early 20th century, when great hotels were built with marble and granite — not glass and steel. Overlooking Grant Park in downtown Chicago, this landmark 1927 hotel is two blocks from Millennium Park, three blocks from the Field Museum, and four blocks from the Loop business district. It features an indoor lap pool, fitness rooms, spa tubs and a running track. Meet your fellow search industry professionals at the Lakeside Green Lounge or the popular Kitty O’Sheas Pub. O’Hare Airport is 18 miles away, while Midway Airport is just under 12.

For more information, visit www.searchenginestrategies.com/chicago/venue.html


Agenda SAVE 15% when you use your keycode at SearchEngineStrategies.com/chicago

Search Fundamentals

Blended Search Results

Analytics, Conversion & Attribution

The Stateof Search

Search onthe Edge

Day 1: Monday, Dec. 7

9-10:15a

10:30-11:30a

11:45a-12:45p

1:45-2:45p

3:15-4:15p

4:30-5:30p

Conference Welcome & Opening Keynote: Jeff Jarvis, Author, What Would Google Do?

Introduction to Search Engine Marketing Mixed Media SERPs Search Analytics Search Industry Today Search: A Real-Time

Paradigm?

Keyword Research YouTube & Video Optimization

Turn Web Analytics Into a Money-Making Machine Search: Where to Next? New Exporters: Use Search

to Build Overseas Trade

Link Building Basics Images & Optimization Meaningful SEO Metrics: Go Beyond the Numbers

Online PR:Where to Next? TBD

DIY SEM: Why You Should Reconsider

SEO ThroughBlogs & Feeds

20 Secrets of Top Converting Websites

Search & the Integrated Marketing Mix TBD

Customer Insights via Search Engine Tools TBD Why Does Search Get all

the Credit?Beyond Googling:

A Different AudienceWhat’s the Link Between

Search and Social?

Track

Search Fundamentals

News & Advertising Small Business Geek Speak Clickz/OMS

Day 2: Tuesday, Dec. 8

9-10a

10:30-11:45a

1-2:15p

2:30-3:45p

4:15-5:30p

Morning Keynote: Peter Morville, President, Semantic Studios

Successful Information Architecture

Google Sponsored Session

Small Voices, Big Impact:Social Media

Developments in Web Information Retrieval Igniting Viral Campaigns

Copywriting: 45-Minute Boot Camp Storyteller Marketing Search on a Dime Landing Page Optimization:

The 7 Deadly Sins TBD

Paid Search 101 News Search Optimization

Google Sponsored Session

Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues TBD

How to Speak Geek: Working With IT TBD Turning Simple Change

into Big ProfitFollow the Carrot:Cool Mobile Apps

Serengeti Sponsored Session

Track

In-House Hybrid Advanced IssuesVertical, Retail,

B2B Clinics

Day 3: Wednesday, Dec. 9

9-10a

10:30-11:45a

12:45-2p

2:30-3:45p

4-5:15p

Morning Keynote: Dan Siroker, Former Deputy New Media Director, Obama Transition Team; Founder, CarrotSticks

Sponsored Session PPC or SEO? The Ultimate Search Marketing Battle

Advanced Paid Search Brain Candy

Advanced B2B Search Marketing

Ad Copy &Conversion Clinic

Bringing PPC In-House Facebook Rockstars RoundTable

Ads in aQuality Score World Sponsored Session E-Commerce Site Clinic

TBD TBD Cut Budget Without Cutting Leads or Sales

Oprah Litigation & Affiliate Marketers

Pay-Per-ClickCongruency Clinic

Bringing SEO In-House Black Hat, White Hat: Does it Matter Anymore?

Eye-Tracking Research Update TBD Site Clinic

Track


Your keycode begins with “KEYCH” and is located above your name on the mailing label, found on the magazine cover. registration

Register online today!saVe $200 through nov. 20, and

saVe an additional 15% when you use your keycode**Your keycode begins with “KEYCH” and is located above your name on the mailing label, found on the magazine cover.

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Thousands of businesses are drowning in search marketing confusion–

SES Magazine readers are decision-making marketers who know they need to boost their online visibility. Rather than being lost…“at sea”… they turn to SES for the help they need.

Answer the SOS by advertising in SES. It’s the official program guide for all Search Engine Strategies Conferences and a magazine full of valuable insights for the search industry. SES is an outstanding resource for online marketing professionals, entrepreneurs and small business owners… and those who want to reach them.

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By now, search marketers know that Microsoft and Yahoo have entered into a partnership deal. Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, will power

Yahoo’s search results. There are many more questions than answers about what to expect and when to expect “YaBing” or “Micro-Hoo” to become a reality. It’s rumored that it may take as long as two years before we see any changes, and nothing’s really been said about how this change will affect search results on Yahoo Local. So, while we wait for details to emerge, make certain you are using Bing Local to your advantage in marketing on the Internet.

Get a Bing Local Business ListingYes, Microsoft has a small share of the

search market and an even smaller share of the local search market. However, local busi-nesses must be where prospects are search-ing for goods and services. And Bing Local is one of those places. When Bing does begin affecting Yahoo results, its market share will grow. Besides, it takes less than 30 minutes to set up a nice local business listing in Bing Local, so go for it.

First, you’ll be asked to enter you busi-ness name, address, and phone number. Bing will then tell you whether you already have a listing or not. This is a definite improvement over Google Maps and Yahoo Local, where it’s sometimes hard to tell if you have a list-ing and how many listings you have. Then, you are prompted to either create a new list-ing or edit your existing profile. You’ll need a Windows Live ID to do either. The process for setting up or enhancing your business profile is pretty straightforward, and you’ll see a prominent progress bar as you go through it to show you how far along you are. Nice touch.

Take advantage of a unique feature that enables you to add extra links (supplemental websites) to your listing. Use these wisely to point to web pages that will be of the most interest and value to your prospective

customers. For a hotel, it may be a link to the great reviews about your accommoda-tions on TripAdvisor. A restaurant might choose to link to its reservation or menu page. A local service business might want to give shoppers a quick way to view its Better Business Bureau rating, whereas a plastic surgeon might want to send visitors to a page outlining her education, certifications, and experience.

When you’re finished, Bing allows you to verify your ownership of the listing by phone or snail mail. Why wait? Choose the phone call. You can choose when you’d like to get the call. The options are now, in five minutes, in 15 minutes, or in 30 minutes. When Bing calls, you’ll be given a PIN number to enter to complete your end of the verification process. Your listing will not update as soon as it’s verified, but it doesn’t take too long. For the most part, you can expect your new information to be live online within two to seven days.

What’s Cool About Bing Local?For consumers using local search, Bing

has some very cool features, which are mostly shown within the entertainment and hospitality niches at the moment. Ratings and reviews appear in a scorecard. The details a searcher might be interested in knowing for that specific kind of business, such as atmo-sphere, food quality, and value for a restau-rant or amenities, or cleanliness and view for a hotel are displayed separately. Bing makes it very easy to see the source of the reviews. Right now, most of them are coming from Citysearch, Yelp, and Judy’s Book, but if it’s smart, the search engine will begin custom-izing these according to niches.

Bing also has “show info from” links within profiles. When you click on these, it may display data Bing has pulled from trusted sources, such as Frommer’s and Fodor’s travel guides for a hotel or infoUSA Healthcare for a dentist — right on the page. It also may give you a link to another web page about the business or both. This makes

it incredibly easy for all users to find out more about you. It also gives you clues about websites where you should check, update, and enhance your business information.

Searchers get a link on the results page to get a bird’s eye view of the business loca-tion, which can help them to find the place, see the parking options, tell what kind of neighborhood it’s in, and see what’s nearby. Directly from the results page, searchers can also get streamlined one-click directions that begin at major intersec-tions, which most of us are familiar with, rather than at a specific address. However, you can get more detailed driving directions if you choose.

What’s Next?In some respects, Bing Local is already

better than Yahoo Local and Google Maps for searchers and business owners. Look for more useful and easy-to-use features as it improves. Google Maps will likely begin adopting the best features just as soon as it can, because that’s what Google does. That will also be good for searchers and busi-nesses. Whether Yahoo Local devotes any resources to improving its system may give us clues to its future. Will we see Bing Local results at Yahoo? I don’t know, but I can’t wait to find out. §

Mary Bowling is director of search marketing at seOverflow. She’s been involved in all aspects of on-line marketing since 2003. She has a special interest in website usability and in SEO, including op-timizing all types of media for search engines. Mary has devel-

oped specialized expertise in promoting brick-and-mortar businesses on the Internet through local search marketing. @marybowling

Bing Local: A New Face in Local SearchBy Mary Bowling

FOCUS: search wars §

28.4 million

Number of unique viewers who watched a video on Yahoo in August.Source: NielSeN VideoceNSuS

A Find out more at ClickZ Stats.


The Microsoft Bing-Yahoo part-nership has really shaken up the search world. And there is perhaps no company that this pending deal stands to impact

more than Google.That said, many in the search industry

have postured that Google has nothing to worry about and will continue dominating — even if it does nothing to combat this competitive threat. But it seems like Google is feeling the need to innovate and reinforce its leadership in the space.

After what seems years of relative same-ness (whether this is perception or reality), everything is either “new” or “improved” on the Google front these days. And they certainly want everyone to know it.

For example, take the recently released beta of Google’s next-generation search infrastructure, code-named Google Caffeine. In the official post on the Google Webmaster blog, there’s a call to developers to test out the beta version and provide feedback on the functionality and the differences between it and the “current” Google.

Visually, there isn’t much difference on the front-end. But it appears the back-end is being redeveloped. As popular blogger and Googler Matt Cutts put it in his post about Caffeine, the changes are primarily all under the hood.

In a video interview done by WebProNews, Cutts elaborated, saying that Google is basically rewriting or

re-architecting a large portion of its index-ing code. He said it’s quite a big update to the infrastructure, comparing it to the late 2005 “Big Daddy” update.

Despite the sizeable scale of the update, he said most site owners wouldn’t notice a big change in their search results or rank-ings. Basically, the change will be on the users’ end — the goal is for Google Caffeine to be much more powerful, flexible, and robust that the Google we know today.

In the interview, Cutts also refuted claims that Google has come up with this update in light of the recent happenings in the industry — namely, the pending Bing-Yahoo partnership. Cutts said this has been happening for months. However, seeing that Google’s last major update to its index was almost four years ago, the timing seems a little too convenient.

Whatever the case, it’s doing the trick: Optically, Google is seen as an innovator, and functionally, its users are going to get a better search engine.

In addition to the Caffeine update, Google has been busy enhanc-ing many other related areas of its business.

Google Labs has seen some new and interest-

ing additions come in recent succession in the past couple months:

Google Listen: § lets you aggregate and stream a personalized audio news magazine.Google Checkout Store Gadget: § lets you set up and install a store gadget on your site.Similar Images: § lets you search for images using other images versus keywords.City Tours: § lets you identify attractions and itineraries for touring major cities.

Google Insights for Search has also seen recent improvements. Besides now being available in 39 different languages, new features include:

Forecasting: § Extrapolates historical and current values to forecast future trends. Animated map: § Plots the distribution of search volume geographically.

Google continues to ride the innova-tion train across its other product lines and offerings, including:

launching social elements on iGoogle §delivering a new beta of Google §Chrome improving the interaction of Google §Groups with applications adding new tools to the Google §Services for websites

With all of these changes, no one can claim with a lot of muster that Google isn’t innovating. It has effectively asserted its commitment to ongoing improvement and dedication to its core business. So now who should be scared? §

Julie Batten is the e-marketing manager at Klick Communica-tions. She develops and manag-es online marketing campaigns for world-class brands. Having written several white papers and articles, instructed online courses, and spoken at various

seminars, Julie is well-versed in all things search.

Google Fights Back With New and Improved Services By Julie Batten

§ FOCUS: search wars

Want to learn more?December’s SES Chicago conference andexpo will feature many speakers from thesearch giant, as well as Google-sponsored sessions.

SearchEngineStrategies.com/chicago


As the economy fell into reces-sion in 2008, many marketers experienced a pronounced reduction in conversions. In reaction to the shift, search

engine marketing (SEM) budgets were reduced to preserve ROI or margin goals. The focus shifted from volume toward an increased emphasis on profitability.

Economists are now hinting that the worst is behind us. While trailing indicators like unemployment rate continue to worsen, albeit at a slower rate, some predict that the U.S. economy will actually show year-over-year GDP growth in Q3 2009. As the econ-omy stabilizes, search engine marketers and

agencies should put position them-selves to benefit as quickly as possible from the ensuing economic recovery. Those who manage large programs, complex configu-rations, and ROI-driven budgets

need to ensure their SEM technology will give them the edge necessary to react in the timeliest way to re-emerging positive trends.

Most search marketers with large programs and budgets have made invest-ments in SEM tools and technologies to help manage the complexity of their accounts and campaigns. Relying only on the tools from Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft does not provide the utility and flexibility needed to manage budgets and bidding on many accounts or campaigns on multiple engines, hundreds of thousands of keyword and ad copy variations, or geographic and other targeting requirements.

Most SEM tools support bidding rules based on historic data for each keyword, consolidated conversion tracking and report-ing, and campaign management utilities to configure all search engines from a single interface. To ensure their budgets and bids are best aligned to react optimally to rapidly changing market conditions, SEM managers should also consider additional capabilities offered by leading SEM technology provid-ers, including the following:

Automated Budget Distribution Across Search Engine Campaigns

Many SEM tools offer keyword-level bid recommendations based on historical perfor-mance data. While it’s useful to understand the characteristics of individual keywords, without an overall model of every combina-tion of keyword performance at different bid levels, it remains challenging to determine performance of the entire search program. Marketers need to understand the best distri-bution of budget across search engines and campaigns to ensure the best possible returns can be achieved.

Having technology that automatically resets campaign budgets to appropriate levels on at least a daily cycle is essential when hundreds or thousands of campaigns are active. Those budgets must account for factors such as day of week variability and seasonal shifts, but they still need to be defined with tight tolerances to ensure over-spend conditions will be contained.

Controls over Data Recency & Seasonality

It’s not enough to only rely on straight-line historical data to predict future perfor-mance. Marketers must look at recent data and understand the dynamics of conversion events. To best react to quickly shifting market dynamics, marketers should choose a technology solution that is able to weigh more heavily on the most recent perfor-mance characteristics of the campaign’s keywords. As we have all experienced, the marketplace can change dramatically for individual keywords in a very short time frame. Looking at the exact 30-day average for a set of keywords can negatively impact performance, while competitors capitalize on that delayed reaction. Having the ability to adjust your recency factors is critical in maintaining or improving the results.

For many businesses, additional impor-tance needs to be placed on how the SEM platform reacts to seasonal data by utilizing history from the same period last year in conjunction with recent trends.

Predictive Modeling & ForecastingSEM tools that provide timely and accurate

forecasts of search volume, bids, expected CPCs, and predicted conversions are critical

for marketers to react quickly to dynamic markets and business goals. Having a clear picture of the trade-offs on spend versus ROI is essential for marketers to communi-cate the impact of search program changes to management or clients. A tool that clearly shows the impact on conversions at various spend levels will assist marketers and reduce reporting and analysis time.

“What If?” Scenario ManagementIf armed with a tool that provides the abil-

ity to set up “what if?” scenarios, marketers can effectively:

look at the impact of different success §metrics on the same spend (e.g. what happens if I change my goal from gross profit to margin percentage?)understand the impact of click and §conversion volume at different spend levels

Having a technology platform that allows the marketer to run different scenarios will help better define the right mix of conversion metrics and determine the best outcomes given changing business objectives. Many marketers who track numerous conversion metrics may find the opportunity in other metrics beyond pure revenue to jump-start their reaction to recovering economic condi-tions. Newsletter signups, coupon offers, and other events may serve as the right leading indicators that can be modeled into overall performance goals.

With the right system in place, marketers will be poised to react quickly and system-atically to the dynamic environment. Know-ing how to identify emerging trends, having the forecasting and modeling in place to test different scenarios, and having the automa-tion in place to execute budget and bid strat-egies are the keys to delivering improved performance as the economy accelerates into full recovery. §

Andy Torgerson is VP of product management at Efficient Frontier, where he leads a team developing a leading SEM product roadmap. Earlier, Torgerson held VP posi-tions in business development and product management at Me-diaplex, a ValueClick company. At

ADP, he held various management roles in product, finance, and operations. He has a B.A. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley.

Is Your SEM Program Ready for Economic Recovery? By Andy Torgerson

§ FOCUS: keyword management

35.2 billion

Financial services garnered more online ad impressions

than any other industry in August.

Source: NielSeN oNliNe, 2009A Find out more at ClickZ Stats.


SearchRosetta

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The evolution of interactive marketing and online campaign development is happening with astonishing speed, fueled by social media platforms. Face-

book recently reported more than 200 million registered users, while Compete released data showing that Twitter had nearly 23 million unique visitors in June 2009. The numbers are constantly changing, but the overall trend is upward as social media grows in traffic, users, and sites. As new social platforms are launched and more consumers engage in social networking on a regular basis, seeing social content on the web is nearly unavoid-able. Forrester Research data from August 2009 revealed that more than 80 percent of Internet users are creating, participating in, or reading some form of social content each month.

Based on these numbers, ignoring the mass consumer migration to the social space is difficult for businesses, which are tapping into social media networks with an onslaught of advertising and promotions to capture the power of online communities and consumer engagement. As an example, print and tele-vision ads routinely contain invitations to follow, fan, or friend companies on popular social platforms. As the potential of social marketing continues to raise eyebrows, more business will follow suit and go where the consumers are.

Best Buy is one such business leading the charge. Through its advertising on main-stream channels, Best Buy is encouraging its customers to use Twitter to ask the experts support and sales questions. In addition, Dell increased its revenues by more than $3 million by posting offers and responding to consumer inquiries on Twitter. Elsewhere, T.G.I. Friday’s offered free burgers to Face-book users for becoming fans of fictional ad character Woody, adding 655,000 fans in 11 days.

Despite the high-profile exposure, brand-building potential, and the ROI-enhancing power of social media marketing campaigns, many local companies still question the

value of an online social presence. Some feel overwhelmed by the abundance of social platforms or the constant monitoring that social marketing entails. Others simply feel strapped by a lack of bandwidth or staffing resources to make social campaigns reali-ties in their marketing programs. The wide reach of the Internet also creates the feeling that these social networking tools are more relevant for widespread campaigns and do not apply to the small-company objective of reaching local consumers.

Based on a study by TMP Directional Marketing in conjunction with comScore, 80 percent of all purchase transactions happen within 15 miles of a consumer’s home or place of work, empha-sizing the need for businesses to connect with local custom-ers more than ever. In today’s economic downturn, business owners are constantly assessing how to best stretch advertising budgets and receive the biggest possible return on investment. The businesses that fail to understand the role that social media plays in reaching local consumers miss out on engaging opportuni-ties to grow sales.

Companies can use a variety of tactics to hone in on specific geo-targeted areas through social media and SEO on a local scale. For example, companies can include geo-modifi-ers or location tags in their profiles if they are part of a larger franchise. Local and mobile social sites such as Yelp, Angie’s List, and Urbanspoon are geared specifically toward connecting local businesses and consum-ers. Also, Idearc’s Superpages is now cross-promoting listings on Twitter, melding Inter-net Yellow Pages and with social media for local business results.

Consumers tend to research online before buying offline. For a local business to over-look this is to misunderstand its customer base, which has been transitioning to digital media and social platforms. Since consumers go online in their quest for business infor-mation, all social platforms include search capabilities that are prominently featured and regularly used. In January 2009, The New York Times showcased how YouTube hosted 2.8 billion searches in November

2008 — 200 million more than Yahoo received. Other data suggests the searches on and referrals from social platforms are grow-ing, while the same metrics from the major search engines remain steady. The question many speculative business owners ask is, “Can clients, or potential clients, in my area find my company if they are looking for us on their platform of choice?” There is defi-nite value in being discoverable where your clients are searching, and the social web provides ways to make those connections.

Businesses can achieve a desired ROI through targeted messaging and commu-nity building on social platforms. For local

companies uncertain about participating on the social web, keep a few things in mind. First, existing and potential customers do interact in this space — and ultimately, the goal is to reach your

target audience. Second, competitors are already participating on the social web — or they will be soon. Establishing a presence within the social space is rapidly becoming a must have, rather than a wait and see. In addi-tion, user-generated content, blogs, online communities and social networks allow consumers nearly instant access to discus-sions about their favorite topics, includ-ing brand experiences and opinions. It’s up to you to have a social media presence, or users of the space will absolutely dominate the dialogue about you. Remember, this is the first time in history you can monitor and engage in the conversations among consum-ers about your brand.

Sales can, do, and will happen for local businesses through social media. Through strategic planning, messaging, and imple-mentation, local social marketing drives results. §

Jessica Rowe is the product man-ager of social media for TMPDM and 15miles and is responsible for the management, implementation, and strategic direction of social media marketing and monitoring programs. Her background is in overall web strategy, develop-

ment, web analytics, SEO, and paid search at compa-nies including Cerner Corporation and Sprint.

Social Media’s Impact on Local Search By Jessica Rowe

§ FOCUS: social

Want to learn more?December’s SES Chicago conference andexpo will feature dozens of social mediasessions and tips on local search.

SearchEngineStrategies.com/chicago

80 percent of allpurchase transactions happen within 15 milesof the consumer home

or place of work.


In the early days of shopping, consumers traveled to stores to learn about the products available to them. Then, print publications filled with advertisements came along to help them discern the difference between highly competitive products. With the advent of the Internet, product data — as well as the actual research and shopping — has moved online.

Since this shift, shopping behavior has continued to change:

Consumers search retail sites 25 §percent more than search engines.More than 70 percent of shoppers click §on products in the top 10 slots.Users associate premium placement §with top brands.E-commerce is the fastest growing §segment for brand marketers.80 percent of today’s product searches §begin online.

These changes in the way consumers research and shop have major implica-tions for both retailers and manufacturers. Retailers must capitalize on the behavior shifts providing the information and selec-tion that consumers demand, while keep-ing them on their site. Manufacturers want to maintain maximum visibility whenever a relevant search is conducted, so they can break through the noise to capture consumer attention. How can both of these challenges be addressed?

One way is to combine the measurable cost-effectiveness of paid search marketing with proven placement-based merchandising techniques. In the brick-and-mortar world, manufacturer-sponsored displays are an integral part of the retail/supplier partnership — a lucrative revenue channel for retailers and an unparalleled marketing platform for manufacturers. The practice takes on many forms, including sponsored shelf-level displays, kiosks, and sponsored end-caps, and has continually evolved to embrace technological innovation and address chang-ing shopping behaviors.

Multi-channel retailers and pure-play e-tailers have already begun to experiment with ways to adapt this practice to the web, with varying success. Advertising is one way to create a potential revenue stream — mone-tizing virtual floor space — but it’s often disconnected from a well-crafted customer experience. Worse, it can lift shoppers right out of the online store and send them to a

manufacturer’s direct sales site. Tactics that hasten abandonment don’t exactly make for a mutually beneficial partnership platform.

Another approach is through site search-triggered merchandising, often called search-andising. While not new, leading e-commerce and search platform providers deliver the majority of implementations in the guise of up-sells, cross-sells, and best sellers. Some retailers have taken this approach a step further, introducing manufacturer-specific branded “merchandising zones” typically in the form of banners, custom editorial, and creative — or even, in some cases, branded landing pages. And translating such search- and browse-triggered merchandising into supplier-sponsored revenue is a concept that hasn’t gone unnoticed.

A new option enables manufacturers to bid to affect their visibility across a network of retail and comparison shopping sites. This approach leverages the familiar concepts of cost-per-click bidding for enhanced posi-tion, and the ROI effectiveness of pay-for-performance media. For the retailer, all product presentation real estate is suddenly monetizable — still ensuring a smooth customer experience, but adding the notion of advertiser bid to the weighting factors used to resolve every search. This would create a vast inventory of virtual end-caps, boutiques, and shelf-level displays that fit seamlessly into a retailer’s well-crafted and differentiated customer experience — bene-fiting manufacturers, retailers, and custom-ers alike. Here’s how:

Sponsorship in the Context of Customer Experience

Borrowing from tactics of both in-store merchandising and site search, the ways in which manufactured-sponsored feeds are presented can vary and be controlled by the merchandiser, similar to the proven brick-and-mortar world approaches while going beyond what’s possible with web search engine-based advertising.

Relevancy weighting § (“boost”): E-commerce site search specialists have long allowed retailers to use factors like margins, inventory, location, ratings, and conversions rates to influence the order in which products are returned. Relevancy weighting simply applies such a strategy to sponsored terms. As with other

weighting approaches, merchandisers maintain ultimate control on how these factors impact final results delivery.Callout § : Adopting a Google-like tactic of clearly denoting sponsored results, this tactic ensures that manufacturers can prominently feature their products on the coveted first results page. Brand-sponsored merchandising §zones: These allow the virtual creation of branded displays and boutiques, giving merchandisers new abilities to monetize increasingly large areas of the site.

Lower Barriers to EntryToday’s advanced site search systems give

merchandisers the ability to create contex-tual promotions, fine-tune relevancy strate-gies, and even create dynamic landing pages triggered by certain search terms. The preva-lence, functionality, and usage of site search tools by merchandisers make site search vendors an obvious complement for the owners of any site search ad or sponsorship network. Retailers already using search-trig-gered merchandising have seen dramatically lower associated costs and risks, without the need for new staff and with minimal impact on current technology or processes.

A cost-per-click approach, combined with the ability to reach consumers through multi-ple retail channel partners, provides tremen-dous incentive for manufacturers looking to increase their position “inside” the online store. This demand and network model has the potential to deliver additional benefits to the retailer, beyond significant new revenue. As with search advertising-related reve-nue-sharing models, when shoppers click on sponsored links on a retailer’s site, the manufacturer pays the associated cost to the network, which in turn pays the prede-termined share to the retailer. This means that, unlike virtually every other investment designed to increase or create revenue, multi-channel retailers and e-tailers can adopt a site search monetization approach without any upfront costs. §

John Federman is president and CEO of Searchandise Commerce, the first online media network for product manufacturers and their retail channel partners. For more information, visit their site at www.searchandise.net.

§ FOCUS: searchandising

Changing Shopping Behavior: How Rethinking Search Keeps You In Front of Consumers By John Federman


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A

advertising network: A service where ads are bought centrally through one company, and displayed on multiple websites that contract with that company for a share of revenue generated by ads served on their site.

algorithm: The technology that a search engine uses to deliver results to a query. Search engines utilize several algorithms in tandem to deliver a page of search results or keyword-targeted search ads.

anchor text: The clickable text part of a hyper-link. The text usually gives visitors or search engines important information on what the page being linked to is about.

click through rate (CTR): The rate (expressed in a percentage) at which users click on an ad. This is calculated by dividing the total number of clicks by the total number of ad impressions. CTR is an important metric for Internet marketers to measure the performance of an ad campaign.

content network: A group of websites that agree to show ads on their site, served by an ad network, in exchange for a share of the revenue generated by those ads. Examples include Google AdSense or the Yahoo Publisher Network.

contextual advertising: Advertising that is targeted to a web page based on the page’s content, keywords, or category. Ads in most content networks are targeted contextually.

cost per action (CPA): A form of advertising where payment is dependent upon an action that a user performs as a result of the ad. The action could be making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or asking for a follow-up call. An advertiser pays a set fee to the publisher based on the number of visitors who take action. Many affiliate programs use the CPA model.

cost per click (CPC): Also called pay-per-click (PPC). A performance-based advertising model where the advertiser pays a set fee for every click on an ad. The majority of text ads sold by search engines are billed under the CPC model.

cost per thousand (CPM): An ad model that charges advertisers every time an ad is displayed to a user, whether the user clicks on the ad or not. The fee is based on every 1,000 ad impressions (M is the Roman numeral for 1,000). Most display ads, such as banner ads, are sold by CPM.

geo-targeting: Delivery of ads specific to the geographic location of the searcher. Geo-targeting allows the advertiser to specify where ads will or won’t be shown based on the searcher’s location, enabling more localized and personalized results.

Googlebot: Google uses several user-agents to crawl and index content in the Google.com search engine. Googlebot describes all Google spiders. All Google bots begin with “Googlebot”;

for example, Googlebot-Mobile: crawls pages for Google’s mobile index; Googlebot-Image: crawls pages for Google’s image index.

inbound link: An inbound link is a hyperlink to a particular web page from an outside site, bring-ing traffic to that web page. Inbound links are an important element that most search engine algo-rithms use to measure the popularity of a web page.

invisible web: A term that refers to the vast amount of information on the web that isn’t indexed by search engines. Coined in 1994 by Dr. Jill Ellsworth.

keyword: A word or phrase entered into a search engine in an effort to get the search engine to return matching and relevant results. Many websites offer advertising targeted by keywords, so an ad will only show when a specific keyword is entered.

link bait: Editorial content, often sensational in nature, posted on a web page and submitted to social media sites in hopes of building inbound links from other sites. Or, as Matt Cutts of Google says, “something interesting enough to catch people’s attention.”

link building: The process of getting quality websites to link to your websites, in order to improve search engine rankings. Link building techniques can include buying links, reciprocal linking, or entering barter arrangements.

meta tags: Information placed in the HTML header of a web page, providing information that is not visible to browsers, but can be used in vary-ing degrees by search engines to index a page. Common meta tags used in search engine market-ing are title, description, and keyword tags.

pay per click (PPC): See cost per click (CPC).

quality score: A score assigned by search engines that is calculated by measuring an ad’s click-through rate, analyzing the relevance of the land-ing page, and considering other factors used to determine the quality of a site and reward those of higher quality with top placement and lower bid requirements. Some factors that make up a qual-ity score are historical keyword performance, the quality of an ad’s landing page, and other undis-closed attributes. All of the major search engines now use some form of quality score in their search ad algorithm.

return on investment (ROI): The amount of money an advertiser earns from their ads compared to the amount of money the advertiser spends on their ads.

search advertising: Also called paid search. An advertiser bids for the chance to have their ad display when a user searches for a given keyword. These are usually text ads, which are displayed

above or to the right of the algorithmic (organic) search results. Most search ads are sold by the PPC model, where the advertiser pays only when the user clicks on the ad or text link.

search engine marketing (SEM): The process of building and marketing a site with the goal of improving its position in search engine results. SEM includes both search engine optimization (SEO) and search advertising, or paid search.

search engine optimization (SEO): The process of making a site and its content highly relevant for both search engines and searchers. SEO includes technical tasks to make it easier for search engines to find and index a site for appropriate keywords, as well as marketing-focused tasks to make a site more appealing to users. Successful search marketing helps a site gain top positioning for relevant words and phrases.

search engine results pages (SERPs): The page searchers see after they’ve entered their query into the search box. This page lists several web pages related to the searcher’s query, sorted by relevance. Increasingly, search engines are return-ing blended search results, which include images, videos, and results from specialty databases on their SERPs.

social media: A category of sites based on user participation and user-generated content. They include social networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook, social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us, social news sites like Digg or Reddit, and other sites that are centered on user interaction.

spider: A search engine spider is a program that crawls the web, visiting web pages to collect information to add to or update a search engine’s index. The major search engines on the web all have such a program, which is also known as a “crawler” or a “bot.”

title tag: An HTML meta tag with text describing a specific web page. The title tag should contain strategic keywords for the page, since many search engines pay special attention to the title text when indexing pages. The title tag should also make sense to humans, since it is usually the text link to the page displayed in search engine results.

universal search: Also known as blended, or federated search results, universal search pulls data from multiple databases to display on the same page. Results can include images, videos, and results from specialty databases like maps and local information, product information, or news stories.

web 2.0: A term that refers to a supposed second generation of Internet-based services. These usually include tools that let people collaborate and share information online, such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies.

glossary Below you will find commonly-used terms that everysearch marketer should know. Keep this list handy!

Turn More Traffic Into More Revenue

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pay-per-clicksearch engine

ses magazine november 2009

Documents

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obamas new media team

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