Performics Search Engine Marketing Blog

Search Happenings- Fourth of July Edition

Posted by JC Longbottom, Associate New Business Manager

From the Engines:

·         SEO tips for Bing.

·         Google Retail Blog: Expanding your brand internationally.

Other Topics of Interest:

·         Congress readying bill to require opt-in to third-party cookies?

·         How the search engines handled the massive traffic spike around Michael Jackson’s death.  Twitter handled 5,000 tweets per minute, AIM crashed.

·         Usability focus group: Bing vs. Google.

·         126 followers, Twitter average.  Twitter imposters annoying big companies.

·         DMNews releases 2009 Essential Guide to Search Marketing.

Some Fun Stuff:

·         Fourth of July biggest beer selling holiday of the year.

Search Happenings

Posted by JC Longbottom, Associate New Business Manager

From the Engines:

·         New Google Flipper easy way to read Google News.  Google News now searchable by article author name.

·         Kayak calls Bing a copy-cat.

Other Topics of Interest:

·         MySpace layoffs.

·         New iPhone Spotlight Search.  What the new iPhone means to marketers.

·         New “save a dog” Facebook app.

·         Marketers closely watch House behavioral targeting hearings.

·         Google Suggest makes inappropriate suggestions, gets shut down in China.

·         Danny Sullivan: Twitter may be sending more traffic to your site than you think.  Twitter abuzz with celebrity deaths.

Some Fun Stuff:

·         Flamingos with severe identity issues.

 

Webinar Tomorrow! 1 PM EDT: Online Holiday Retail 2009: Tips, Tactics and Timelines for Success

Speakers: Eli Goodman & Matt Miller

Is your business ready for the year-end holiday sales season?

Whether you're a multi-channel retailer or you're selling purely online, the holiday retail season can be critical. It's not too early to start thinking about it now.  This webcast will help you prepare by giving you planning tools and an understanding of what you need to do -- and when -- in order to succeed online during the 2009 holiday selling season.

Eli Goodman, Search Evangelist at comScore, will give an overview of the state of online retail and what the experts are predicting for the holiday season, highlighting several vertical markets in the process.

Matt Miller, Director, Vertical Solutions at Performics, will give specific tips and timelines that retailers can follow in the months building up to the holidays. He'll also go over opportunities in search marketing, and how to take advantage of them on a retail site.

In this webcast we’ll learn:

• Current forecasts for the 2009 holiday shopping season
• Which retail categories performed better than others
• Specific tips and tactics for retail success — from understanding customer needs to managing landing pages
• Planning for the holidays - timelines/milestones for the next six months

If your business includes any online sales during the holiday shopping season, don't miss this one -- you'll gain valuable hands-on advice on how to maximize your success.

Register now - it's free!

Search Happenings

Posted by JC Longbottom, Associate New Business Manager

From the Engines:

·         Hunch: a new decision engine.  Hunch told me to eat my Cheetos with chopsticks.

·         Engines race to deliver real-time search.

Other Topics of Interest:

·         Promote your social media presence.

·         Twitter’s tremendous growth levels off in May; Facebook keeps growing and finally outpaces MySpace in the US.  Users rush for Facebook vanity URLs.

·         Is Google scared of Bing? Google markets itself with new explore Google Search page to illustrate that Google’s always had Bing features that users like.  Early Bing share stats from comScore, compete and Hitwise.  Bing vs. Google eye tracking.

·         Google and DoubleClick ad platforms to combine.

·         Possible behavioral-ad targeting legislation to come down this fall.

·         A state department official emailed Twitter to request that they put off scheduled maintenance due to the crucial role Twitter was playing in the election in Iran.

Some Fun Stuff:

·         “We’re closing up.” “Thanks for letting me know, see you tomorrow.”

·         Two outlaw cows flee ranch and cross state lines.

Search Happenings

Posted by JC Longbottom, Associate New Business Manager

From the Engines:

·         Google launches Google Translator Toolkit.

·         Google supports National Broadband Plan.

·         Get your vanity URL on Facebook.

Other Topics of Interest:

·         Initial traffic numbers for Bing.  Did it jump ahead of Yahoo?

·         comScore: Bing off to good start.

·         Possible advantages on Bing for search advertisers.

·         Twitter customer service best practices.

·         Is Google counting paid search ads as incoming links that boost natural search rankings?

·         Watch the Webby Awards on YouTube.

·         IAB: Internet advertising down 5% in Q1.

·         Marketing advantages of Google Wave.

Some Fun Stuff:

·         Like fishing with dynamite.

·         GO FETCH!

·         One sly mouse.

Bilingual Search Best Practices

Posted by Jeff Licciardi, Associate Account Manager

Canadians, specifically those who either live in Quebec or were brought up in a French speaking household, often switch between communicating in English and French.  However, French speaking Canadians predominantly communicate in English when their surroundings are primarily in English.  Most signs in Canada contain French and English, as do plenty of advertisements.  Search, however, does not.

So what’s the best way to connect with these consumers in search?  Serving French copy for French keywords only addresses those users who, 100% of the time, choose to interact online in French (French Web sites, French language settings, etc.).  The puzzle is figuring out how to address the bilingual tendencies of these consumers.

Search Happenings

Posted by JC Longbottom, Associate New Business Manager

From the Engines:

·         New Google Wave to integrate email, tweets, IM, photo sharing and more in one interface.

·         Google Squared is live.

·         Google results vs. Bing results.

·         Bing commercial YouTube Channel.

·         Updates to AdWords Editor.

Other Topics of Interest:

·         IE8 to have real-time social search option.

·         Brands that are embracing and leveraging Twitter.

·         Picking a Search Engine Marketing vendor.

·         How to use Twitter for crisis management.

·         Digg announces new ad platform.

Some Fun Stuff:

·         Thieves steal beehives from royal family.

·         A toddler—with big dreams—buys a tractor.

 

Search Happenings

Posted by JC Longbottom, Associate New Business Manager

From the Engines:

·         Microsoft to release much anticipated Bing on June 3rd.

·         Yahoo! previews new homepage.

·         Google: tips for maximizing your paid search investment.

Other Topics of Interest:

·         Danny Sullivan interviews Twitter founder Biz Stone about Twitter’s future.

·         $80-$100 million to promote Bing.

·         Link building via your blog.

Some Fun Stuff:

·         Severe consequences for missed high-five recovery.

·         Russia accidentally invades village.

Search Happenings

Posted by JC Longbottom, Associate New Business Manager

From the Engines:

·         Google to partner with Twitter?

·         Google Suggest adds links to the search box.

Other Topics of Interest:

·         Michael Arrington: drop in paid search ads caused by bankrupt advertisers.

·         Wolfram Alpha review.  And it’s already making money.

·         How car dealerships overcome unique search marketing challenges.

·         Must have Web site features.

·         Optimizing your videos for prime time.

Some Fun Stuff:

·         Dog phone call causes police to scramble.

Google’s Rich Snippets – A Chance to Tell the World More about Your Business

Posted by Sam Battin, Senior Search Strategist (Natural Search)

Google recently reported that they were adding something new to their search results.  This new thing is called “Rich Snippets”. 

A typical Google search result used to look like this:

 
On or after May 2009, if your business is something that can be rated online by Web users, Google’s going to try to incorporate those reviews into their results pages, as shown in the following screenshot for a well-liked restaurant: