Showing posts with label gasta white label. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gasta white label. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Gasta Tech A viral strategy for using paid search
Gasta Tech A viral strategy for using paid search
By Seth Sarelson
March 12, 2010
* Each paid search click for a multi-channel merchant is more valuable for in-store revenue than for online revenue
* A coupon that's no better than your competitors' coupons or your standard everyday coupon isn't going to go viral
* Add a sense of urgency to your campaign by having a short-term expiration date on your coupon
Paid search has, and continues to be, one of the most effective ways of driving online sales. What you may not know is that paid search may actually be much more effective at driving in-store sales than it ever has been for ecommerce.
Co-author Jonathan Treiber is CEO and co-founder of RevTrax.
Data from a comScore and Yahoo study (PDF) actually suggest that consumers exposed to only search spent $16 in store for every $1 they spent online. Analysis of cross-channel conversion data by RevTrax has yielded the same conclusion -- that each paid search click for a multi-channel merchant is far more valuable for in-store revenue than it is for online revenue.
Given this data, it's no surprise that marketers are looking more and more to paid search as an incredibly cost-effective tool to drive in-store sales via use of a printable coupon. By combining paid search with consumer-initiated social media and email to facilitate virality, marketers can set the stage to make a big impact at a low cost in a way that is impossible with other marketing strategies -- especially print.
Here are five tips to help you use paid search to make your coupons go viral:
1. Dig deep. Give a high value offer. A coupon that's no better than your competitors' coupons or your standard everyday coupon isn't going to go viral. If you want to go viral, you're going to need to push your limits and create an extraordinary offer.
2. Search + social media + email = viral. Each time a consumer prints your coupon, you'll want to prompt him or her to either A) share the coupon via social media, B) email friends, or C) both. A social media interaction that's generated by a consumer recommending your coupon to friends is far more valuable than anything marketers can do on their own. You can easily accomplish this by adding a social media widget on the page where consumers print your coupon.
3. Offers should expire quickly. Add a sense of urgency to your campaign by having a short-term expiration date on your coupon. If consumers know that your coupon expires in several days, they'll engage more quickly than if it was outstanding for a month before expiring.
4. Measure thoroughly, optimize frequently, and repeat. You should know which keywords are generating the greatest numbers of clicks, prints and, ultimately, sales. The same keywords that generate the heaviest click volume aren't necessarily the ones that generate the most coupons printed and in-store sales. There are technologies available to help you measure the full conversion funnel from paid search ads to in-store sales for each individual keyword to optimize your bidding. Also, the more frequently you measure the data (i.e., daily versus weekly), the quicker you can optimize bid-management and drive better results.
5. Geo-target. Run campaigns with a tight radius around each store. You probably have a good sense for how far consumers will travel. Optimize your campaigns by setting a geographic radius around each store if possible. If you have too many stores or this is not possible, at least make sure that you exclude regions where you do not have a physical presence.
In addition to the things you can do right, there's one big thing to avoid:
Don't make the consumer jump through hoops. It's one thing to ask a consumer to give a name or email address to build your database. Do not ask the consumer for endless amounts of registration data that you won't use. Also, do not force the consumer to download software to print the coupon. These roadblocks are the killers of conversion rates and viral marketing. The rule of thumb is that keeping it simple will keep your customers happy.
As marketers make the transition from traditional media to search and other types of digital media to drive in-store sales, it's critical that marketers utilize best practices to increase ROI and make it easy for consumers to engage and share coupons with friends. When executed correctly, a search campaign driving traffic to a printable coupon can be one of the most effective and targeted ways to generate in-store sales with incredibly high ROI.
Seth Sarelson is COO and co-founder of RevTrax, where co-founder Jonathan Treiber is CEO.
Saturday, December 05, 2009
Critical Local Search Factors To Pay Attention To
Critical Local Search Factors To Pay Attention To
Chris Crum | Staff Writer |Webpronews
Local Search is Changing and Getting More Competitive
Local search is only one sliver of the search marketing game, but it is an increasingly important one, and one that is changing rapidly. These days people are going to the web to find local businesses, sometimes more than even the phone book. Having a presence in local search is imperative for any small business, but just as imperative is being able to compete for visibility.
There is a good discussion taking place in our WebProWorld forum on the topic of local search. If you have any insight, you can contribute there or comment on this article for other WebProNews readers to see.
There are a lot of variables to consider when mapping out (no pun intended) your local search marketing efforts. Jeff Howard at Search Engine Guide has a very informative piece about such variables that search engines, and Google specifically employ when returning local search results to users.
"They have variables such as size of the map, and definition of a region's center that combine with trust, a citation, or sometimes what I call 'sureness factors' to determine what businesses should be recommended," he says. More specifically, the variables Howard is talking about are:
1. The size of the area as defined by the keyword search, or map space being viewed.
2. Google's sureness that in fact there is a business at the listed address doing what it says.
3. How Google defines the region's center, either by keyword or map parameters like zoom level.
Howard goes into some quite interesting examples of the variables at work.
Traditional Marketing Vs. Social Marketing - Click Here Now
It's not just about how the search engines define local results though. Businesses should also take into account how users/customers define them. Your business may be so many miles away from a user's location, but other variables can factor into this as well. Neighborhoods may matter to users. Obstacles like rivers, for example, may matter. Maponics CEO Darrin Clement made some good points on this subject in a recent interview with WebProNews.
As it stands right now, there are a number of measures businesses can take to help users find them in local search. Howard offers the following tips to let Google and other mapping search engines know where you're located:
- Have your address listed with major data providers.
- Claim your listing at the local business center.
- Have reviews either at Google or elsewhere.
- List your business in the proper categories once it's been claimed.
Search specialist Bruce Clay recently shared some further local search tips in another WebProNews interview. One particularly important tip he shared involved getting local people to link to your content. It helps if you have content that is actually localized.
Bruce also aimed to debunk some local SEO myths in that interview, and one of those is that local SEO is cheaper than SEO on a broader scale. He basically noted that just because a site's target audience is smaller, SEO is still SEO, and essentially the same work is involved when it comes to fixing a site and optimizing it. That's just something to keep in mind.
That said, SEO may still be SEO when it comes to the effort that goes into it, but just because your site is optimized well for regular search, does not mean that your local search presence should take a back seat. Even if your site ranks well organically, Google may be pushing it further down the page, simply because of the search engine's use of Universal search, which for many queries that yield local results, will simply return a set of local results, which are often near the top of the listings. This is pulled from a separate index. This topic was discussed in a quite interesting interview we had with Brian Combs, who founded local SEO firm ionadas local.
The new redesign of search results pages that Google has been testing could have important implications for local search. As some have pointed out, the interface involved with this redesign alters the presentation of local universal results. It only shows five results as opposed to the seven that Google currently shows.
"In the new UI, the map is now wider, the local listings are shown below the Map and an obvious pin to a Map centric view is visible along the left menu," notes local search blogger Mike Blumenthal. "In an of itself, the change means more SEO competition for fewer spots. Whether the change will drive more people into Maps is unclear as highlighted Map pin is offset by fewer links into Maps."
He also provides an interesting look at what this possible new interface could mean in connection with Google's local listing ads for businesses that the company is also testing.
Doing well in local search means much more than simply having a listing in Google Maps. Local search is a competitive and increasingly critical space of the web that local businesses need to take seriously. Take into account the rise of the mobile web, which is only going to greatly increase in consumer use, and local plays that much more of a role in getting customers to your business.
Chris Crum | Staff Writer |Webpronews
Local Search is Changing and Getting More Competitive
Local search is only one sliver of the search marketing game, but it is an increasingly important one, and one that is changing rapidly. These days people are going to the web to find local businesses, sometimes more than even the phone book. Having a presence in local search is imperative for any small business, but just as imperative is being able to compete for visibility.
There is a good discussion taking place in our WebProWorld forum on the topic of local search. If you have any insight, you can contribute there or comment on this article for other WebProNews readers to see.
There are a lot of variables to consider when mapping out (no pun intended) your local search marketing efforts. Jeff Howard at Search Engine Guide has a very informative piece about such variables that search engines, and Google specifically employ when returning local search results to users.
"They have variables such as size of the map, and definition of a region's center that combine with trust, a citation, or sometimes what I call 'sureness factors' to determine what businesses should be recommended," he says. More specifically, the variables Howard is talking about are:
1. The size of the area as defined by the keyword search, or map space being viewed.
2. Google's sureness that in fact there is a business at the listed address doing what it says.
3. How Google defines the region's center, either by keyword or map parameters like zoom level.
Howard goes into some quite interesting examples of the variables at work.
Traditional Marketing Vs. Social Marketing - Click Here Now
It's not just about how the search engines define local results though. Businesses should also take into account how users/customers define them. Your business may be so many miles away from a user's location, but other variables can factor into this as well. Neighborhoods may matter to users. Obstacles like rivers, for example, may matter. Maponics CEO Darrin Clement made some good points on this subject in a recent interview with WebProNews.
As it stands right now, there are a number of measures businesses can take to help users find them in local search. Howard offers the following tips to let Google and other mapping search engines know where you're located:
- Have your address listed with major data providers.
- Claim your listing at the local business center.
- Have reviews either at Google or elsewhere.
- List your business in the proper categories once it's been claimed.
Search specialist Bruce Clay recently shared some further local search tips in another WebProNews interview. One particularly important tip he shared involved getting local people to link to your content. It helps if you have content that is actually localized.
Bruce also aimed to debunk some local SEO myths in that interview, and one of those is that local SEO is cheaper than SEO on a broader scale. He basically noted that just because a site's target audience is smaller, SEO is still SEO, and essentially the same work is involved when it comes to fixing a site and optimizing it. That's just something to keep in mind.
That said, SEO may still be SEO when it comes to the effort that goes into it, but just because your site is optimized well for regular search, does not mean that your local search presence should take a back seat. Even if your site ranks well organically, Google may be pushing it further down the page, simply because of the search engine's use of Universal search, which for many queries that yield local results, will simply return a set of local results, which are often near the top of the listings. This is pulled from a separate index. This topic was discussed in a quite interesting interview we had with Brian Combs, who founded local SEO firm ionadas local.
The new redesign of search results pages that Google has been testing could have important implications for local search. As some have pointed out, the interface involved with this redesign alters the presentation of local universal results. It only shows five results as opposed to the seven that Google currently shows.
"In the new UI, the map is now wider, the local listings are shown below the Map and an obvious pin to a Map centric view is visible along the left menu," notes local search blogger Mike Blumenthal. "In an of itself, the change means more SEO competition for fewer spots. Whether the change will drive more people into Maps is unclear as highlighted Map pin is offset by fewer links into Maps."
He also provides an interesting look at what this possible new interface could mean in connection with Google's local listing ads for businesses that the company is also testing.
Doing well in local search means much more than simply having a listing in Google Maps. Local search is a competitive and increasingly critical space of the web that local businesses need to take seriously. Take into account the rise of the mobile web, which is only going to greatly increase in consumer use, and local plays that much more of a role in getting customers to your business.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Gasta Tech News: Balmer on Bing Innovations
Ballmer sees Bing reinventing search
By Rich Cherecwich
Bing increased its share of the U.S. search market again in September, growing from 8.7 percent to 8.8 percent, The New York Times reports. That's a small move, but Bing's search volume increased by more than 8 percent during the same month, while nearly every other search engine saw its volume decline, according to data from Compete.
Bing has increased its market share every month since launching, and parent company Microsoft is taking steps to ensure that growth continues. The company reached a deal with Twitter earlier this week that will let Bing incorporate tweets into searches.
But Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer knows Bing has a much longer road to get ahead of market leader Google, and he plans on getting there by "radically reinventing the category." Ballmer didn't lay out any specific details, but in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, he hinted that Bing has some search innovations in the pipeline. "We're going to do things that surprise [Google], and they're going to hustle to catch back up and copy us," he said.
By Rich Cherecwich
Bing increased its share of the U.S. search market again in September, growing from 8.7 percent to 8.8 percent, The New York Times reports. That's a small move, but Bing's search volume increased by more than 8 percent during the same month, while nearly every other search engine saw its volume decline, according to data from Compete.
Bing has increased its market share every month since launching, and parent company Microsoft is taking steps to ensure that growth continues. The company reached a deal with Twitter earlier this week that will let Bing incorporate tweets into searches.
But Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer knows Bing has a much longer road to get ahead of market leader Google, and he plans on getting there by "radically reinventing the category." Ballmer didn't lay out any specific details, but in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, he hinted that Bing has some search innovations in the pipeline. "We're going to do things that surprise [Google], and they're going to hustle to catch back up and copy us," he said.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Gasta news; Gasta white label search engine solution
The Gasta white label hosted search engine solution is ready to launch in your region contact bizz@amiwired.com and let us know your name, email, the region, city, state, you would like to launch in,your domain, and any other details you think are relevant.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Europasearch the future of contextual search
Europasearch.com offers the best value for money contextual advertising platform on the web. The platform is called SearchMatch, and what is unique about Europa SearchMatch is that it allows your advert to show in the number one position for your Keywords,with no competitors. The Keywords are yours as you have purchased them already for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months or 1 year. No one can competitively click on your keywords to waste your money or raise the price of PPC, because there is no PPC. Get it? You buy your niche or direct marketing keywords for a 1,2,3, month or 1 year period.
The SearchMatch platform also allows you to buy your keywords only across the regions you are intersted in as your target market, North America, UK /Ireland, Central Europe,China, Japan, Australasia. The Keywords you buy may only be relevant to you or your brand, like 'Gucci Bags' or may be generic like 'Car Insurance'. Your keywords might be seaonal like 'Christmas hampers'in which case you may only need them for 3 months of the year for a specific region. The SearchMatch platform is the worlds first truely anti click fraud service that enables and empowers the advertiser to run the top competitive keywords to suit their budget. Not only that the Unique Five Star number one position will start to develop organic traffic as it picked up by Google and the other major search networks as a backlink on The Europasearh network.
Europasearch is a blended search engine that will bring up results for videos, news, images, and web results with one mouse click, your ad will appear across all the blended search services, so if someone searches for a how to video on 'Christmas hampers'your advert will come up first on the video search as well as the web results index. this is a great service and great tools are available on the search results page for sharing results with LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook, and Digg.
Europasearch currently has 165 web search engines launched across global regions and is now offering a white label search solution for countries, cities, industry, or towns. to find out more about the white label hosted search solution contact bizz@amiwired.com.
The SearchMatch platform also allows you to buy your keywords only across the regions you are intersted in as your target market, North America, UK /Ireland, Central Europe,China, Japan, Australasia. The Keywords you buy may only be relevant to you or your brand, like 'Gucci Bags' or may be generic like 'Car Insurance'. Your keywords might be seaonal like 'Christmas hampers'in which case you may only need them for 3 months of the year for a specific region. The SearchMatch platform is the worlds first truely anti click fraud service that enables and empowers the advertiser to run the top competitive keywords to suit their budget. Not only that the Unique Five Star number one position will start to develop organic traffic as it picked up by Google and the other major search networks as a backlink on The Europasearh network.
Europasearch is a blended search engine that will bring up results for videos, news, images, and web results with one mouse click, your ad will appear across all the blended search services, so if someone searches for a how to video on 'Christmas hampers'your advert will come up first on the video search as well as the web results index. this is a great service and great tools are available on the search results page for sharing results with LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook, and Digg.
Europasearch currently has 165 web search engines launched across global regions and is now offering a white label search solution for countries, cities, industry, or towns. to find out more about the white label hosted search solution contact bizz@amiwired.com.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Gasta Launches new white label search engine for India
Gasta has launched a second of its web2.0 white label search engines in India. Gasta has partnered with Indus Net Technologies to launch www.talash.in (Talash means search in hindi)Abhishek Rungta CEO of Indus Net said "I am delighted to partner with Gasta and provide search and search marketing services to the indian continent"
If you would like to hear more about Gasta hosted white label search engines contact the gasta website.
If you would like to hear more about Gasta hosted white label search engines contact the gasta website.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Gasta News: Microsoft still soft on Yahoo Deal
Key issues to watch in Microsoft's next bid for Yahoo's search business
Posted:
It's starting to seem inevitable: Microsoft appears poised to make another run at Yahoo's search business. The point was driven home by the selection of Qi Lu as Microsoft's new online chief last week, giving the company a former Yahoo insider to oversee the integration, if it comes to that.
Discussing Lu's hiring during an interview with the Wall Street Journal last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer all but scheduled the Yahoo negotiations.
"I think a search deal makes great sense for Microsoft, and Yahoo, and I think I've been very open about that," Ballmer told the paper. "That's as true with Qi joining us as it was before Qi joined us. Obviously the logistics of any such integration … can only be simpler by having somebody who will know both sides."
There have been so many twists and turns since Microsoft's original Yahoo acquisition bid that it's impossible to know what will come next. But assuming Microsoft gives a search deal another try, these will be some of the key issues to watch:
PARTNERSHIP OR SEARCH ACQUISITION? Microsoft hasn't been clear on this point. At the company's shareholders meeting last month, Ballmer used the phrase "search collaboration." Some media reports focus on Microsoft acquiring Yahoo's search assets.
Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Kirkland-based Directions on Microsoft, said this morning that the most logical scenario would be a partnership letting Yahoo keep its portal while redirecting search queries to Microsoft's engine and advertising system.
TIMING: The biggest complication here may be Yahoo's ongoing CEO search. Will the Sunnyvale, Calif., company engage in serious talks with Microsoft without a new chief on board? And once the new CEO is in place, how will he or she approach the possibility of a Microsoft deal? In any event, Ballmer made it clear during the WSJ interview that he wants to do something soon.
SEARCH BRAND: On the surface, at least, this seems the easiest issue to resolve. Microsoft is looking for a better search brand, and it appears ready to go off in a new direction with Kumo.com or some other new name. But were the companies to combine search operations, wouldn't the Yahoo search brand be the one to lead the way, based on market position?
PEOPLE AND LOCATIONS: Much of this will depend on the outcome of the "partnership or acquisition" question above. But depending on the agreement the companies reach, it seems reasonable to expect more of Microsoft's search operations to be based in Silicon Valley, building on the existing presence of both companies there.
ANTITRUST: With a combined total of roughly 30 percent of the U.S. search market, a Yahoo-Microsoft search deal wouldn't face nearly the regulatory hurdles that the Google-Yahoo deal did.
But things could get more complicated if the companies bring their Web portals, Web mail or instant-messaging systems into the mix, even tangentially. Particularly on an international level, the market strength of those properties could attract the attention of regulators.
The additional complication is the transition of power in the United States. Depending on how it's structured, a Microsoft-Yahoo search deal could be the first big test of U.S. antitrust policies under Obama and Eric Holder, his nominee for attorney general.
P.S.: Microsoft is holding an internal employee meeting with Lu and Ballmer this afternoon in Redmond. My request to cover it was turned down, but hopefully some details will emerge. Contact me at toddbishop@bizjournals.com.
Posted:
It's starting to seem inevitable: Microsoft appears poised to make another run at Yahoo's search business. The point was driven home by the selection of Qi Lu as Microsoft's new online chief last week, giving the company a former Yahoo insider to oversee the integration, if it comes to that.
Discussing Lu's hiring during an interview with the Wall Street Journal last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer all but scheduled the Yahoo negotiations.
"I think a search deal makes great sense for Microsoft, and Yahoo, and I think I've been very open about that," Ballmer told the paper. "That's as true with Qi joining us as it was before Qi joined us. Obviously the logistics of any such integration … can only be simpler by having somebody who will know both sides."
There have been so many twists and turns since Microsoft's original Yahoo acquisition bid that it's impossible to know what will come next. But assuming Microsoft gives a search deal another try, these will be some of the key issues to watch:
PARTNERSHIP OR SEARCH ACQUISITION? Microsoft hasn't been clear on this point. At the company's shareholders meeting last month, Ballmer used the phrase "search collaboration." Some media reports focus on Microsoft acquiring Yahoo's search assets.
Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Kirkland-based Directions on Microsoft, said this morning that the most logical scenario would be a partnership letting Yahoo keep its portal while redirecting search queries to Microsoft's engine and advertising system.
TIMING: The biggest complication here may be Yahoo's ongoing CEO search. Will the Sunnyvale, Calif., company engage in serious talks with Microsoft without a new chief on board? And once the new CEO is in place, how will he or she approach the possibility of a Microsoft deal? In any event, Ballmer made it clear during the WSJ interview that he wants to do something soon.
SEARCH BRAND: On the surface, at least, this seems the easiest issue to resolve. Microsoft is looking for a better search brand, and it appears ready to go off in a new direction with Kumo.com or some other new name. But were the companies to combine search operations, wouldn't the Yahoo search brand be the one to lead the way, based on market position?
PEOPLE AND LOCATIONS: Much of this will depend on the outcome of the "partnership or acquisition" question above. But depending on the agreement the companies reach, it seems reasonable to expect more of Microsoft's search operations to be based in Silicon Valley, building on the existing presence of both companies there.
ANTITRUST: With a combined total of roughly 30 percent of the U.S. search market, a Yahoo-Microsoft search deal wouldn't face nearly the regulatory hurdles that the Google-Yahoo deal did.
But things could get more complicated if the companies bring their Web portals, Web mail or instant-messaging systems into the mix, even tangentially. Particularly on an international level, the market strength of those properties could attract the attention of regulators.
The additional complication is the transition of power in the United States. Depending on how it's structured, a Microsoft-Yahoo search deal could be the first big test of U.S. antitrust policies under Obama and Eric Holder, his nominee for attorney general.
P.S.: Microsoft is holding an internal employee meeting with Lu and Ballmer this afternoon in Redmond. My request to cover it was turned down, but hopefully some details will emerge. Contact me at toddbishop@bizjournals.com.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Gasta: Personalised Search
Gasta Personalised Search for your company website.
You can reap the benefits of having your own personal search engine for you and your collegues to share in the revenues, and benefit from Search per acquisition affiliations.
Google leads in personalised search.
1. You can no longer assume that rankings as you see them are global. Anyone logged in while they search is potentially seeing a different set of results for the same keyword. You can log out of your Google account to search or turn off personalized results, but it won't do much good since every other user is potentially searching with personalization.
2. If Google is incorporating usage data from other sources such as the Google Toolbar, Google Chrome and Google Analytics, it means that the user experience is going to play a heavier role in SEO. Keep this in mind: for Google, the user experience is everything. Doesn't it then make sense for them to incorporate available usage data when ranking websites?
3. With these new data sources, Google could potentially be scaling back the emphasis on inbound links in their ranking algorithm. Links to this point have been central for Google rankings. With their market share continually improving and the unparalleled usage data that affords them we can reasonably expect that they'll be putting more emphasis on these metrics in the future.
4. Expected traffic estimates based on rankings just became difficult if not impossible to achieve. In the past, traffic could be reasonably estimated by multiplying the available search usage for a given keyword by the known traffic percentage of a given position. The 1st position, for example, receíved some 48% of traffic for a keyword according to leaked AOL data from a few years back. For a keyword receiving 100 searches per month, you could reasonably estimate 48 visits per month based on a #1 ranking for that keyword. SEO companies used that data to take some of the guesswork out of their campaigns. With personalized search these estimates are going to become far less accurate if not completely unreliable.
5. Overall, this means you need to keep your eyes OFF the search engine rankings to a large degree. Does a #1 position for your Google account mean you could be somewhere back on page 5 for someone else? Probably not. But the point is, from here on out we can't be sure without extensive testing. Rankings have haven't ever meant much - they've always been a means to an end, the end being quality traffic and ultimately more sales, attention or whatever your website goal may be. Now, more than ever, high-quality traffic should be your focus.
Personalized search isn't exactly a new concept - it's been discussed for at least a couple of years now. But we're seeing it receive heavier emphasis lately, and the buzz is on that Google is going to change the game again soon. Like it or not, we're likely going to have to let go of rankings as a metric for success.
You can reap the benefits of having your own personal search engine for you and your collegues to share in the revenues, and benefit from Search per acquisition affiliations.
Google leads in personalised search.
1. You can no longer assume that rankings as you see them are global. Anyone logged in while they search is potentially seeing a different set of results for the same keyword. You can log out of your Google account to search or turn off personalized results, but it won't do much good since every other user is potentially searching with personalization.
2. If Google is incorporating usage data from other sources such as the Google Toolbar, Google Chrome and Google Analytics, it means that the user experience is going to play a heavier role in SEO. Keep this in mind: for Google, the user experience is everything. Doesn't it then make sense for them to incorporate available usage data when ranking websites?
3. With these new data sources, Google could potentially be scaling back the emphasis on inbound links in their ranking algorithm. Links to this point have been central for Google rankings. With their market share continually improving and the unparalleled usage data that affords them we can reasonably expect that they'll be putting more emphasis on these metrics in the future.
4. Expected traffic estimates based on rankings just became difficult if not impossible to achieve. In the past, traffic could be reasonably estimated by multiplying the available search usage for a given keyword by the known traffic percentage of a given position. The 1st position, for example, receíved some 48% of traffic for a keyword according to leaked AOL data from a few years back. For a keyword receiving 100 searches per month, you could reasonably estimate 48 visits per month based on a #1 ranking for that keyword. SEO companies used that data to take some of the guesswork out of their campaigns. With personalized search these estimates are going to become far less accurate if not completely unreliable.
5. Overall, this means you need to keep your eyes OFF the search engine rankings to a large degree. Does a #1 position for your Google account mean you could be somewhere back on page 5 for someone else? Probably not. But the point is, from here on out we can't be sure without extensive testing. Rankings have haven't ever meant much - they've always been a means to an end, the end being quality traffic and ultimately more sales, attention or whatever your website goal may be. Now, more than ever, high-quality traffic should be your focus.
Personalized search isn't exactly a new concept - it's been discussed for at least a couple of years now. But we're seeing it receive heavier emphasis lately, and the buzz is on that Google is going to change the game again soon. Like it or not, we're likely going to have to let go of rankings as a metric for success.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Gasta News: Brand turf war
Paid Search:Low intensity warfare on Google plains
Agencies aren't practicing what they preach when it comes to using paid search to market their brands, according to Adweek, and while these agencies are sleeping, some of their smaller competitors are using paid search to their advantage.
Buying your brand name would seem logical, but of the 56 agencies assessed by Adweek, only five had sponsored links tied to their names on Google. The others did not have paid search links, but their web pages generally appeared near the top of the search results.
"It's very difficult to recommend certain things to your clients if you're not in the game yourself," said Craig Conrad or Interpublic Group's Campbell-Ewald. "So often we're focused on our client business [that] sometimes it's easy to forget about our own brand."
While brand advertisers are up in arms over Google's lack of enforcement when it comes to piggybacking, it seems that some smaller agencies are actually using the practice themselves. A search for OgilvyInteractive yields a sponsored link for Stein Rogan + Partners, a small New York agency.
"Why not put ourselves out there as a viable alternative?" said Tom Stein, Stein Rogan's CEO. "It's a little bit of counter-marketing."
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Microsoft Strategy & Gasta European Search Network
Microsoft is to launch a European Search Technology Center (STC) next year as it attempts to boost Live Search's presence across the continent.
The company said it aims to "disrupt the search and advertising marketplace" by using the STC to make Live Search more targeted and relevant for European users.
Kevin Johnson, president of the platforms and services division at Microsoft, said, "Success in search in Europe is paramount, and we see the investment in this new Search Technology Center as an important step in doubling down on our long-term investments."
Satya Nadella, senior vice president of the search, portal and advertising Group at Microsoft, said, "Searchers have different expectations and experiences in every geography in the world, so we believe it's critical to make deep investments in physical locations in multiple markets to ensure that we're applying the best local expertise to our research and development efforts."
The STC is scheduled to open next year, but Microsoft said it had yet to decide on a location.
The company said it aims to "disrupt the search and advertising marketplace" by using the STC to make Live Search more targeted and relevant for European users.
Kevin Johnson, president of the platforms and services division at Microsoft, said, "Success in search in Europe is paramount, and we see the investment in this new Search Technology Center as an important step in doubling down on our long-term investments."
Satya Nadella, senior vice president of the search, portal and advertising Group at Microsoft, said, "Searchers have different expectations and experiences in every geography in the world, so we believe it's critical to make deep investments in physical locations in multiple markets to ensure that we're applying the best local expertise to our research and development efforts."
The STC is scheduled to open next year, but Microsoft said it had yet to decide on a location.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Gasta.com to offer white label Hosted Search Engine Solution
Gasta.com is gearing up to offer geographical regions, companies, cities, and industrial sectors the opportunity to launch their own geo-targeted and white label branded hosted search solution. You can launch the branded search engine in a matter of hours and select from a variety of advertising and content partner solutions such as Google adsense, pay per click, you tube,blinx, Mirago, Ikojo, Yahoo mobile, Msn Live, and virtually any other content partner you sign up for. The fine details are not fully finalized as yet but this is a thrilling development.
CTO of Gasta search networks, Stuart Manning said " This is were the SME sector can build their own search brand, we will provide them with the platform and they can take in content from whatever source to build and develop revenue streams, there is no search boxes involved, everything is white label to meet the needs of the sites owners, and they controll the content, this is another innovation in the fast paced web 2.0 search development sector from Gasta.com"
Gasta will also build in the contextual advertising platforms of SearchMatch and InstantAds so site owners and operators can sell their own advertising inventory to their own clients and customers., track statistics and offer reports. More To follow.
CTO of Gasta search networks, Stuart Manning said " This is were the SME sector can build their own search brand, we will provide them with the platform and they can take in content from whatever source to build and develop revenue streams, there is no search boxes involved, everything is white label to meet the needs of the sites owners, and they controll the content, this is another innovation in the fast paced web 2.0 search development sector from Gasta.com"
Gasta will also build in the contextual advertising platforms of SearchMatch and InstantAds so site owners and operators can sell their own advertising inventory to their own clients and customers., track statistics and offer reports. More To follow.
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