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Tips to Avoid Duplicate Content Penalty

Copyright Your Content: The first step in protecting your content is having a clear copyright posted. While a simple statement on the footer of your page may be enough — be aggressive and up front.

Actively Check for Duplicates: Blogs have quickly become one of the fastest vehicles for duplicate content to spread. Knowing this, you need to keep an eye on search results quite often. It can be a tedious process, but searching for unique strings of text on Google’s Blog Search, Copyscape and the Internet Archive are all great ways to find those reusing your writings.

Performing Internal Audits: Duplicate content can exist on the same site as easily as it can on different domain names. Performing internal site audits on your web sites is an excellent way to ensure that you are properly optimized. Use your robots.txt to intelligently select the best pages to be indexed. Then, make sure you use Google Webmaster Central, Yahoo! Site Explorer and Live Search Webmaster Portal to help discover any additional problems to address.

Read more at: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/protect-yourself-from-duplicate-content-issues/5561/

Yahoo New Panama Search Marketing Tools

According the Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog, there are several new tools that can help advertisers to improve their search marketing campaign performance.

You can now create, edit, copy, delete and view all saved ads (up to 20) for an ad group in one place. More importantly, you can view the performance of your ads against one another with one click.

You’ll also be able to check to see if you have ads with low quality index scores under the Account Summary tab at any time.

You now have the ability to save and recall up to 45 customized report views per account user for later reuse.

Read more at: http://www.ysmblog.com/blog/2007/08/30/enhanced-tools-and-new-options/

Seasonal Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategy

There are many ways to take advantage of seasons and hot trends in Search Engine Optimization. Here are some examples:

Write articles around seasonal trends
You don’t necessarily need to write about back to school shopping, but you can use it as a launch for a metaphor post.

Use seasonal keywords in post titles
Just mentioning a hot keyword in your headline pulls more traffic, but if your post has nothing to do with Halloween, then the boost will be short-lived.

Launch a separate niche blog or site targeted at a holiday or season
MothersDayCentral pulled this off SO well - and their brilliant linkbait post sealed the deal to put them on top of Google’s Mother’s Day charts

Watch news sites for hot topics and events
This site has done well writing about the Super Bowl and Harry Potter on just the right days, even though Dawud and I stayed on topic - blogging and business.

Rotate advertising on your site to fit the season
You may be able to do well selling iPods on your site year-round, but will probably sell more if you mention that they are great presents during the December holidays, to give to college grads, or that the Easter Bunny likes to hide them with eggs.

Read more at:
Do You Have a Seasonal Search Engine Optimization Strategy? - Written by Wendy Piersall

5 Tips to Avoid Black Hat SEO

Tip 1: Find out what tactics SEO firms are using (if they don’t disclose their SEO techniques, best to walk away).

Tip 2: Study the SEO company’s client list (are their customers reputable?).

Tip 3: Contact the clients (ask about their experiences and if they’d use them again).

Tip 4: Check out their results (if they’re not producing for themselves or existing clients, chances are they won’t produce for you).

Tip 5: The golden rule - no one can guarantee number one spot on Google, Yahoo or MSN. If an SEO firm makes this claim, be very wary.

- Rick Sloboda, Senior Web Copywriter at Webcopyplus. Read more at: http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-publishing/web-publishing-the-dark-side-of-seo-001602.php

UK Paid Search Market to Surpass 2 Billion Pounds in '07

UK spending on search engine marketing (SEM) will increase 58% this year to 2.22 billion pounds, forecasts E-consultancy. pointing out that although the anticipated growth rate would be down from 65% in 2006, the market has plenty of room for future growth.

The paid search market alone will near 2 billion pounds this year - some 1.97 billion pounds - up 56% from 2006, the E-consultancy report estimates, according to MarketingCharts.

However, for the first time, spending on organic search will grow more quickly, increasing 68% - to 252 million pounds, or 11% of the SEM market, it said. The estimate includes payments to agencies, as well as investment in client-side staff to manage SEO and implement changes.

In a survey earlier this year, the firm found that two-thirds of marketers said they would be increasing their budgets in the next 12 months for both paid search (65%) and search engine optimization (64%).

- Find out more at: http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com/2007/08/23/uk-paid-search-market-to-surpass-2-billion-pounds-in-07/

Most Important Tip on AdWords' New Top Placement Formula

The key change to the new AdWords' top placement formula is how Google considers price. Like the formula used for ranking ads alongside Google search results, the top ad placement formula now considers an ad's maximum CPC.

Beginning 22/08/2007, the actual CPC you pay for an ad in a top spot will continue to be determined by the auction, but subject to a minimum price. The minimum price is based on the quality of your ad and is the minimum amount required for your ad to achieve top placement above Google search results. As always, your actual CPC will be discounted and the higher your ad’s quality, the less you will pay.

Here is the most important tip to keep your costs down and your performance high:

Review your account for maximum CPCs that are higher than the maximum amount you're willing to pay.

- All according to official Google AdWords blog. Read more at Inside AdWords: Improved top ad placement formula now in effect.

YouTube Ads Get Mixed Reviews

Online marketing execs might be pleased with YouTube's new "overlay" ads, but it's not clear that viewers feel likewise.

In fact, judging from comments on YouTube's blog, users are quite perturbed by the ads, for which marketers are reportedly paying $20 per thousand impressions. Some complain that the ads, which appear on the bottom fifth of the page, cut off other viewers' written comments, while others are asking how to opt out of the ads. Some have simply announced they intend to abandon the site.

While there's no proof that the people who write in to YouTube's blog are representative of the site's 50-plus million monthly visitors, it certainly seems plausible that many users aren't happy to see ads suddenly appearing on a portion of their screens.

For now, YouTube is limiting the ads to official content partners, in hopes that it won't be accused of profiting from copyrighted material. Otherwise, the company could potentially lose the "safe harbor" protections of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. That law generally protects Internet companies that host copyrighted content as long as they remove it upon request. Companies lose that protection, however, if they directly profit from the material. Courts still have to determine what constitutes a direct profit, but selling ads at $20 CPMs sounds like it could qualify -- which means that a great deal of material on the site will remain ad-free for the near future.

- Wendy Davis

Microsoft: Victim Of Search Promotion-Fraud

According to Information Week, MSN's tremendous gains in search share for Live Search. After the report, readers openly questioned the merits of the company's astonishing 67%t gain in search volume. At the time, the gains were attributed to the prizes users were awarded for using Live Search in the new MSN game zone, Live Search club.

As it turns out, a huge chunk of the statistical spike can be better-attributed to bots, says one Live Search Club user. "The reason their search engine is being hit so frequently is that people are running automated 'bot' programs to play the Live Search games for them," says user Jack Krause. "Microsoft is essentially being DDoSed by thousands of people hundreds of times per minute, but they are mistaking this rise in traffic for people actually using Live Search."

Live Search club users are awarded tickets for participating in the clubs' games; the tickets are redeemed for Microsoft prizes, including Xboxes, Zune media players, a new Windows Vista operating system and other expensive items. Microsoft confirmed that the number of winners was so high for last week's prize--Windows Vista--it was later removed. Microsoft said it was due to high demand, but another Live Search Club member rebuffed those claims, saying: "You can completely max out the number of tickets available within six to eight hours without even being at your computer."

Is it ridiculous that MS cannot identify click-fraud on its own search promotion? Reading this, I have to question how Microsoft prevents click-fraud on its paid search engine marketing platform - AdCenter. I believe if this ever happened to Google, Google cannot achieve high growth rate in the search engine marketing area, namely, adWords.

Four Out of Five Newspaper Website Readers Also Read the Printed Edition

A new study recently released by the Newspaper National Network LP, conducted by Scarborough Research, found that 81% of newspaper website users also read the printed newspaper. Crossover users (those who used both print and online newspapers) have deep affinity with both their printed newspaper and their newspaper website, and 83% say "I love both my printed newspaper and visiting my newspapers website." Crossover users visit their newspaper website to:

Access breaking news (96%),
Find articles seen previously (85%)
Find things to do/places to go (72%)

The main reasons newspaper website-only users cited for using newspaper websites include:

Accessing local news (84%)
Entertainment information (74%)
Food or restaurant information (58%)

Newspaper website-only users are web-savvy group as 52% write or read blogs and 46% have joined a web community.

The survey results suggest when doing online display advertising on news websites, you need to be able to segment your customers. However, it might be always a good idea to sponsor the breaking news and local news sections. Of course, you need to pay attention to the potential branding damage if coincidently your product is associated with some bad events in those news.

Social Networks Adversely Affect U.K. Ad Growth

The news from the U.K. shows that MySpace -- in about 12 months -- has easily catapulted to the top of the social networking pile, attracting more than 10 million visitors in the U.K. last month, more than double second-place Bebo, with 3.96 million uniques, and Facebook, 3.2 million.

However, in a separate study, GroupM media forecasters said that the surging popularity of social networks in Britain is proving to be a drain on the growth of Web advertising. Why? Two reasons: one, consumers are spending more time social networking at the expense of professional news and entertainment publishers; two, the fact that users create the content is a detractor to big-spending global advertisers, which don't want their brands placed on content with no corporate control. Of course, any slowdown in U.K. Web advertising would be relative, especially when compared with the stagnant growth rates of U.K. broadcast and print advertising. The firm predicts Web spending in the U.K. will rise 34% this year, down from a 48% rise in 2006.

Does the same hold true for the Australia? Please, anyone who knows, give me a buzz.

Are You Still Using Page Views as Engagement Metric?

Are you still using Page Views as the important engagement metric of your website? If yes, you are out-of-date: Nielsen rejects Page Views! Nielsen/NetRatings said on 10/07/2007 that it will no longer issue rankings based on page-view although it will continue to compile page-view data.

Nielsen announced this in favor of time spent at a Web site. Time spent has become the "best engagement metric" in the wake of Web 2.0 technologies like Ajax, which can deliver photos, maps, email, video and other content without requiring users go to a new page.

This move drew a mixed response from online advertising experts, who note that many Web sites make no use of Ajax technologies.

Google CPA: An Answer to Click Fraud?

Google ran a limited test of the so-called pay-per-action service in July 2006 with a handful of advertisers and affiliated online publishers on whose sites the ads run. This test only involves 75 Google's AdWords advertisers and 75 affiliated U.S. publishers, who allow Google to place ads on their sites relevant to the context on their pages. The feedback was positive enough to warrant a broader trial. On Mar. 20, Google said it would begin a broad new advertising trial for pay-per-action service.

TV, Print Trigger Online Searches

A recent article on BrandWeek by Joan Voight had some insights for online searches. Traditional advertising plays a key role in prompting consumers to search for merchandise online, according to a study by the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA) and BIGresearch.

Roughly half of the consumers told researchers they take cues from TV, magazine and newspaper ads to determine when and where to shop online.

In order of preference, 47% said they turned to magazine ads, followed by TV commercials and newspaper ads at 43% each. (Respondents could choose more than one medium.)

In-store promotions motivated 27% to search for products online. When it came to coupons, far more women than men used them for online guidance, at 42% of women versus 29% of men.

The survey findings seem to reinforce the evidence that many marketing agencies are collecting, which indicates online and offline marketing programs work better than online-only or offline-only campaigns.

Lesson learned: When it comes to advertising, retailers always need to be careful not to put all of their eggs in one basket. Shoppers use the Internet as a resource before determining which items to buy and where. According to the survey, 92.5% of adults said they regularly or occasionally research products online before buying them in a store.

The study surveyed more than 15,000 consumers in November and December 2006.

Rejected: PPC Search Industry Standards

I recently read an article at http://clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3624138 named "Wanted: PPC Search Industry Standards". I have totally different opinions with the author - Kevin Lee. Here is my thoughts on this issue.

Rejected: PPC Search Industry Standards

“With the launch of Yahoo's Panama, some major differences in creative standards and account structures among the search engines are disappearing. Yet campaigns often aren't portable between engines. What may initially seem like common standards aren't as common as advertisers would like.” (Kevin Lee: "Wanted: PPC Search Industry Standards")

• “Some major differences in creative standards and account structures among the search engines are disappearing” does not mean search engines should adopt the same standards; they need to somehow differentiate their PPC products to gain competitive advantages over other. Yahoo made the majors changed to its PPC system does not mean Yahoo wants to follow a standard; it only means Yahoo has seen with the old system, Google will definitely have competitive advantage over it; however with the new system, it can at least reduce the gap to a certain degree.
• “Yet campaigns often aren't portable between engines.” Why campaigns need to be portable between engines? I do not see the necessity. Different search engines have different market share. Their users are often from different market segments. The creative that catch the eye-balls in one search engine does not necessarily catch the eye-balls of other search engine users. The keywords searched on one search engine might not be searched on other search engines.
• “What may initially seem like common standards aren't as common as advertisers would like.” Please do not use the word “advertisers”! As a PPC professional, I understand the frustration brought by different standards used by different search engines. However, our frustration does not mean that the advertisers that we are serving also feel the same frustration. They pay us to set up and look after their search campaigns, so although we feel frustration, they don’t care about it. What advertisers care is all about their profits and sales.

"It's about time the search engines agreed on standards within PPC paid placement SEM systems as well. Advertisers and their agencies spend far too much time reconciling account structures, dealing with different creative specifications, and building tools that allow for translation of other special features provided by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and second-tier engines." (Kevin Lee: "Wanted: PPC Search Industry Standards")

• “Advertisers and their agencies spend far too much time reconciling account structures, dealing with different creative specifications, and building tools …” I cannot see why advertisers and their agencies need to spend far too much time in doing all the things mentioned here. Building a simple Excel template can solve the account structure and creative difference problem. Moreover, the three major search engines provide bulk template. Using their bulk template, I don’t think much time is needed to build a campaign.
  

"Top search engines may believe standardization will result in their losing a competitive edge, but there are lots of things all engines share that could and should be standardized. The time marketers waste resolving duplicative issues among accounts would be far better spent finding ways to add efficiencies to the campaigns, which would result in more overall PPC spending. More spending helps all the engines. Some of my favorite candidates for standardization are below. " (Kevin Lee: "Wanted: PPC Search Industry Standards")

• “Top search engines may believe standardization will result in their losing a competitive edge, but there are lots of things all engines share that could and should be standardized.” Why would I do anything to diminish my competitive advantage? No! That’s why search engines do not want standardization! They are in the search marketing business, so what they want to do is to increase their competitive advantage but not decrease it by adopting a set of standards. It is so simple to understand. Dell sells computers; HP also sells computers. However, why don’t they sell standardized computers at the same price although all computers share the same components, such as CPU, RAM, CD-ROM, etc? Because they want to beat other sellers; they want more profits for their own! This is why so many businesses are engaging in product proliferation practice although sometimes consumers are feeling confusing. For the same reason, search engines will not standardize their PPC products because agencies or advertisers want so; rather, they are willing to spend more on persuading us to believe we should have the choice.

Creative Length

All the things mentioned here are about the sequence you build the campaign. If you start from Google, they are not problems at all. You may ask why I should start with Google. Well, Google is so far still the no. 1 search engine in many countries all over the world. Its AdWords platform is still the most stable and easy-to-use system among all the search products.

Dynamic Keyword Insertion

I have to say this feature might be helpful for some situations, but it does not always work well. Moreover, with Google’s move on landing page quality, I believe this function will be less helpful in the future. If you want a better quality score, you better use keyword in your ad title directly.

API XML Language/Tags

Although programmers might hate the fact that they have to develop different API applications for different search engines, I believe they will not be happier if you tell them that some of them will fired due to the fact that search engines are now adopting the same standards. What I want to say here is that just because search engines use different standards, there is a search industry. If they all use the same standards, there will be no search industry; there will be only Yahoo, or Google, or MSN, or one of the others.

Conclusion

Paid placement search has been around for about nine years. In the early days of GoTo (which became Overture, then Yahoo Search Marketing), standards weren't needed. Now standards are still not needed. Even in the future, standards will not be needed, no matter how increasingly complex that the search marketing will become.

Holiday Search Campaigns Need Year-Round Care

While a search campaign's execution will always be somewhat time-dependent, search marketers need to begin planning for individual seasons much earlier, and implementing some measures on a year-round basis.

Firstly, an early start allows search marketers to rotate keywords and ad creative to determine which are most effective going into the peak season.

Secondly, the goals of searchers shift over time. The early season is the time to build general brand awareness, and later in the cycle, marketers should shift their focus to direct efforts such as online gift certificates.

Thirdly, it is a best practice to create special landing pages and mini-sites devoted to a particular seasonal services and products to build traffic on key search terms during off-season lulls.

Web Ads Perform Better For Direct Response Than Branding

According to a study released Tuesday by the American Advertising Federation, more than seven in 10 respondents (71%) also believe that the Internet is "very effective" or "most effective" for direct response advertising. Most (60%) indicated that the Web is only "somewhat effective" for brand advertising.

Researchers asked respondents how they planned to allocate their online/new media budget next year among search and seven types of emerging media--online video, blogs, podcasts, social networking, RSS, mobile and video games. Within those categories, executives said that search would receive the largest proportion (27%) on average, followed by online video (14.9%), blogs (8.4%), podcasts (8%), social networking (7.7%), RSS (5.5%), mobile (5.2%), and video games (3.6%).

Most respondents (71%) described search as "very effective" or "most effective," but also thought highly of emerging media. Among newer forms of media, online video was deemed very effective or most effective by 40% of respondents, followed by social networking (38%), video games and podcasts (23%), mobile (20%), blogs (19%), and RSS (11%).

Did your commercial e-mail get blocked?

According to Return Path, the amount of commercial e-mail that gets blocked or filtered, is now about 19.2 percent for the first half of 2006. However, six leading ISPs still blocked more than a third of commercial e-mail for reputable marketers, with Excite blocking more than 50 percent.

There are several things you can do right now to build your e-mail reputation, and give your e-mail the best chance of gaining inbox reach, according to Matt Blumberg, founder, CEO and chairman of Return Path:

Stop focusing on tweaking content for delivery reasons.

Start fixing your list.

Get technical.

Nielsen//NetRatings: Google Captures Half of August Searches

With more than 3 billions U.S. searches last month--a 30 percent increase from August of 2005--Google accounted for 50.2 percent of all searches, according to new data by Nielsen//NetRatings. Yahoo claimed 24 percent of the market with around 1.43 billion searches--a 24 percent rise from last year. Rounding out the top three was MSN, which accounted for 10 percent of the market with 595 million searches--an increase of 3 percent from last year.

Google expands online news index to include older articles

Google is expanding its online news index to include stories published years ago, continuing the Internet search leader's recent efforts to create new sales channels for long-established media while it strives to make its own Web site even more useful.

The new archives feature will only share excerpts from stories related to users' requests, which are expected to range from seminal moments in history to minutiae about sports and science.

To see the full stories, Google's visitors will be sent to the Web sites that own the content. Those referrals figure to provide media outlets with more opportunities to charge for access to the full stories - a common practice when people want to read historical information.

Google won't collect any commissions for the sales referrals, hoping instead to make money indirectly from increased usage of its own site - the hub of a vast advertising network that accounted for most of the company's $1.3 billion profit during the first half of this year.

The arrangement marks Google's latest attempt to demonstrate the value of its search engine to the traditional media, a segment that has sometimes railed against the Mountain View-based company for profiting from the display of content owned by others.