Apr 28

SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 24, 2008

Search Engine Optimization No Comments »

Below is what happened in search today, as reported onSearch Engine Land and from other places across the web

From Search Engine Land:

  • New Google CIO: Morgan Stanley's Benjamin Fried
    News.com reports that Benjamin Fried, a Morgan Stanley managing director, has been pegged to fill the chief information officer spot that opened up when Douglas Merrill left earlier this month. Google's confirmed the move....
  • MicroHoo: Let The Proxy Fight Begin!
    The Seattle PI is suggesting that the fight for control of Yahoo's board, which Microsoft had previously threatened, may begin in earnest this weekend. Conversations with institutional shareholders have already been taking place. The three week deadline set by Steve Ballmer for Yahoo to come to the table will expire...
  • Yahoo! Launches SearchMonkey Developer Tool in Limited Preview
    Today, Yahoo! is providing a "limited preview" of a tool that enables developers to create SearchMonkey applications. Yahoo! CTO Ari Balogh will be unveiling the tool at Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco today, and more details are available in the Yahoo! Search Blog. Yahoo! first announced SearchMonkey in February...
  • US Justice Department Scrutinizing GooHoo Paid Search Test
    According to Reuters the US Justice Department is taking a look at the paid search partnership test between Google and Yahoo. According to the article, there are antitrust concerns raised by the test and its implications and the Justice Department has "initiated an investigation" of it....
  • Yahoo Search Circle Allows Users To Easily Expand & Narrow Results On Map
    Yahoo just announced that it has added a nifty tool to Local (called "search circle") that allows uses to alter the geographic scope of results by expanding or narrowing a circle on the map. The circle can also be dragged to a particular area easily, allowing for more efficient neighborhood...
  • Video: Details On Setting Your Site's Geographic Target In Google Webmaster Tools
    Google launched the set geographic target feature in October of last year. Since then, many webmasters began experimenting with it and I have personally not seen too many complaints about it, which is always a good thing. Google's webmaster central team said they have been receiving some questions on the...
  • Diagnosing The SEO Health Of Your Website
    Is your website sick? In many ways, SEO consultants are like doctors, only instead of analyzing your personal health symptoms, we analyze the overall health of your website. It's true we're not working with life or death situations the same way doctors do, but having a website that is...
  • Google Finally Hands Over Alleged Pedophiles Profiles On Orkut To Brazilian Authorities
    Google hands over data on suspected pedophiles to Brazil via the AFP reports Google has finally handed over profiles of suspected pedophiles to Brazilian authorities. As expected, Google did hand over 3,261 files with information about alleged pedophilia activities in Google's Orkut communities. A member of the senate commission, Demostenes...
  • Google Image Ads: Display Ads For Mobile
    Yesterday Google announced mobile image ads. The ads are displayed on the mobile sites of publishers that are participating in AdSense for mobile (or that opt-in to the new program). Mobile image ads are created in users' AdWords accounts and require more or less the same type of setup as...
  • A Closer Look At EveryZing
    For those of you in need of a turn-key, hosted solution to gain natural search engine visibility for your video and audio content, the company EveryZing says they??™re the ticket. EveryZing??™s solution consists of a suite of products: ezSEARCH, ezSEO, and RAMP. The products are designed to provide users...
  • Tools For Engaging In Social Media
    We all know Social Media Marketing can be pretty time consuming. There are numerous social media communities, each requiring you to sign up, make a profile, and participate, in order to have any success with them. So it is only natural that you would like to have some helpful...
  • Link Development Tool Shortcuts for Firefox
    A few weeks back I did a post on my blog about creating Firefox quick search bookmarks. I was surprised at how well received it was, though I think people were most pleased with the fact that I had created a download of a very small selection of the...

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        Apr 28

        The Law and Business of Online Advertising Conference Recap

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        Posted by Sarah Bird, Esquire

        May It Please the Mozzers,

        Last Friday, I had the pleasure of attending the Law and Business of Online Advertising, a conference co-sponsored by the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and University of Santa Clara’s High Tech Law Institute.

        It was a Who's Who of online marketing super stars, including Eric Goldman (my hero), Kim Howell (poor thing had to explain online marketing to liberal, non-technology academics), Hal Varian (kind of a big deal), John Horrigan, Oren Bracha (looks a little like Clark Kent), Peter Swire (looks a little like Greg Kinnear), Rebecca Tushnet, Jeffrey Rohrs (lives and breathes the law AND the business), and Alissa Cooper (heading up technology at the Center for Democracy & Technology). There were lots of other very nerdy folks too. I felt right at home!


        Here are the highlights:

        The morning started with a couple tutorials explaining how online advertising works. (I know. Adorable, right?) They brought in the big guns, Hal Varian, to explain how behavioral targeting allows sites to create a unique page for each of the user's visits. It was a little like using a nuclear bomb to kill a fly, but I suppose it's always good to go back to basics. (And Hal, if you read this, thumbs up on your nifty graphics. Shoot me a copy of your deck, would you?)

        I don't know for certain, but the audience seemed to be primarily lawyers and academics from nearby universities, with some students thrown in here and there. And there was one table right in the mid-center who looked to be composed of people who actually do technology. (It was awfully nice of them to come.)

        For the most part, the morning sessions focused on search engines and large companies with corresponding behemoth, complex ad campaigns.

        Varian did give a brief shout-out to SEOs and SEMs. Google's Chief Economist described SEOs as "highly skilled online marketers." He compared SEOs to lawyers in the amount of training and specialization required. He also speculated that in the future, SEOs will be built into the ad agencies themselves. No more rogue independent elements. On the whole, it was a favorable endorsement of the profession from one of Google’s most brilliant minds.

        Interestingly, the hottest issue was behavioral targeting and its impact on consumer privacy. The audience seemed pretty hostile to behavioral targeting. However, everyone on the panels agreed that behavioral targeting was a good and useful thing, but only if consumers are given a knowing choice to participate.

        The audience was extremely interested in cookies and how they work.  (Awwww...) People were surprised and confused to learn that the NAI’s opt-out program doesn’t prevent advertisers from collecting information about you; it only prevents advertisers from serving you targeted ads. The companies still get to benefit from your information, you still have to see ads, but the ads aren’t targeted towards your preferences. Somehow, I have a feeling that most consumers who bother to use the NAI's opt-out program don't realize this. After all, I have to imagine that it is the tracking itself that bothers privacy-sensitive people, not the targeted ads.

        The Unanswered Question: What Level of Disclosure Is Necessary in Privacy Statements?

        So everyone agrees that privacy statements must reveal what information is collected and how it is used. But in practice, privacy statements aren’t really helping to make behavioral targeting more transparent. Why? (1) Because no one understands privacy statements. (2) Further, many sites claim that they will not sell your information, but then they change their minds and fail to notify the users.

        An interesting issue that was left out of the discussion is the impact of jurisdiction and the global reach of the internet. There was no discussion on harmonizing U.S. privacy laws with other nations. There was also no discussion of methods to enforce privacy or security concerns in a global marketplace. I hope the next conference spends more time on international issues.

        Orem Bracha Started an Interesting Discussion of Search Engine Bias and the Challenges to Regulating the Net.

        If you've ever felt that search engines should be held responsible when your client's rank seems to drop inexplicably, or if you've ever wondered whether search engines steer users towards sites with more SE-served advertisements, then you should take a look at the article Bracha co-authored with Frank A. Pasqualle, "Federal Search Commission? Access, Fairness and Accountability in the Law of Search." Rather than do a terrible job trying to summarize the article, I'll quote you the Abstract.

        Should search engines be subject to the types of regulation now applied to personal data collectors, cable networks, or phone books? In this article, we make the case for some regulation of the ability of search engines to manipulate and structure their results. We demonstrate that the First Amendment, properly understood, does not prohibit such regulation. Nor will such interventions inevitably lead to the disclosure of important trade secrets.

        After setting forth normative foundations for evaluating search engine manipulation, we explain how neither market discipline nor technological advance is likely to stop it. Though savvy users and personalized search may constrain abusive companies to some extent, they have little chance of checking untoward behavior by the oligopolists who now dominate the search market. Against the trend of courts that would declare search results unregulable speech, this article makes a case for an ongoing conversation on search engine regulation.

        At this point, I'm not willing to agree that the establishment of a Federal Search Commission is a good idea. However, I do think this is very important work. It may be a dead end, but the road should be mapped. The questions asked by Bracha are important for at least two reasons: (1) Politically conscientious people must never assume that organizations are looking out for their best interests. You have to study the organization before you can draw any conclusions about whether your interests are aligned. (2) The internet increasing permeates our living, practical lives; as the on and off-line worlds blend, there may be a time where regulation is necessary. It would be a mistake to wait until it is clear regulation is necessary to start looking at whether regulation is legally and practically feasible.

        Potential Privacy Harms Should Be Considered in Anti-Trust Analysis When Behavioral Marketing Companies Seek Merger Approval.

        Peter Swire is a privacy guru. He gave some very interesting testimony to the FTC about how the Google/DoubleClick merger could be viewed as anti-competitive because of the aggregation of consumer information and other privacy harms. Everyone is intuitively familiar with the idea that corporate mergers should be prohibited where the new company would be large enough to engage in harmful anti-competitive behavior. Typically, the harms include price fixing or a reduction in the quality of available goods. If you think of privacy policies as part of the search engine's "product," then you can start to guess where this is going.  Well, Swire seems to have two points: (1) The sheer aggregation of consumer information of both broad and deep searches would result in harm to the privacy-sensitive consumer; (2) The aggregation of so much consumer information in the behavioral profiling industries may effectively block or prevent others from fairly competing in the marketplace.

        Traditional antitrust analysis examines a proposed merger and often sets conditions on approval—the merger can proceed for aspects that create consumer welfare, but cannot proceed for aspects where harms outweigh the benefits. Where consumers suffer from lower product quality and reduction of consumer welfare, such as through privacy harms, it thus is logically consistent to consider merger conditions that address privacy harms.

         Swire's presentation is powerful. It breaks new ground by identifying the unique intangible assets, barriers to entry, and competitive challenges for the behavioral marketing industry.

        Regardless, I don't think Varian was pleased by the argument. He squirmed and objected to Swire, making a slippery slope argument that if you consider consumer information to be potentially anti-comptetive, where will it end? What wouldn't become a reason to prevent a merger? Swire responded that the question shouldn't really be "what kind of thing should be taken into consideration"? Rather, the question should be "what effect does it have on the consumer and the market"? If the net result is positive for consumer, the merger should go forward. If the net result is bad for consumers, then the merger should be blocked.

        Here's a short article by Swire in which he speculates that privacy as a form of non-price competition will play out in any yahoo/microsoft merger as well.

        Holding Intermediaries Liable For Online Conduct: Re-imagining the CDA

        Tushnet had a lot of interesting things to say, but I was most interested in something she said in passing about re-working the CDA ("The Communications Decency Act").

        If you read my posts regularly, you may know I have a special interest in the CDA. Despite my unceasing feeling that we have failed to achieve an adequate balance between e-commerce, the First Amendment, anonymous speech, web 2.0, privacy, and reputational interests, I have been unable to reformulate the law in a way that will adequately reconcile these opposing interests.

        After arguing that there has beensomepush-back from the broad immunity granted by the CDA, Tushnet brainstormed the possibility of developing a new regime to combat business torts. What if we created a special administrative body to hold hearings on an expedited basis, similar to UDRP? Or an expedited court proceeding? Some mechanism where websites and search engines wouldn't be tasked with resolving disputes regarding user-generated content? Some neutral organization could hear the matter quickly and efficiently and then issue a ruling that the website must follow.

        I was momentarily excited, but then the realities start setting in...The websites don't have the access to evidence or the incentive to fight for the user generated content. Thus, you would really end up with a de-facto DMCA regime with significant chilling effects on free speech. Perhaps most importantly, the jurisdiction and enforcement issues quickly make such schemes impractical. I guess I'll just have to continue to worry and ponder about the far-reaching effects of the CDA.

        Finally, The Advertiser's Perspective

        It was great to have Jeffrey Rohrs on this panel because he is an actual advertiser (there weren't very many of those at the conference) and has legal knowledge to boot! Finally we were talking about trademark, Can-Spam, affiliate marketing, and the potential ROIs and risks involved.

        In sum, the advertiser panel agreed that there will probably be a lot more trademark litigation in the future as affiliates and technology get more creative at marketing products. Thus, the sellers' ads are likely to end up all over the virtual world (videos, twitter, FB, blogs, sms, social media sites), making it more difficult to identify the parties involved and the chain of liability. The panel agreed that it was important to manage risk by using both (1) a solid contract with your advertisers as well as (2) an affiliate manager to follow up and track how your advertisers are exploiting your brand.

        All in all, it was a very enjoyable conference. I was surprised at how little time was spent on SEO, trademark, copyright, and international issues. Also, I think more participation by actual marketers would help keep the discussions academically honest and relevant.

        That wraps it up. If you want to read more about the conference, check out Rebecca Tushnet's blowbyblow.

        Best Regards,

        Sarah

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        Apr 28

        Logistics Management Solutions

        Search Engine Optimization No Comments »

        Logistics business worldwide is adopting technology to drive efficiencies and for saving operational costs. The information technology helped the business to realign the scenario and operational methodologies to increase integration, visibility and customer support. The challenges faced by the logistics operators and consumers all along the years.The IT integration throws open another set of challenges like Total Cost of Ownership, ROI, scalability, maintenance. Identifying the suitable tech more...

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        Apr 28

        Google StreetView Sees Expansion In Europe, With Automation Of 3D

        Search Engine Optimization No Comments »

        CNet speculates about expanded Google StreetView coverage in Europe and the coming automation of 3D mapping for Google Earth and, perhaps, the desktop. Google's StreetView project is definitely global and there have been sightings of the camera-equipped vehicles throughout Europe. It's thus only a matter of time before the major European capitals are added (which is great for US-based travel to Europe; too bad the exchange rates are so unfavorable).

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        Apr 28

        Seven Important Qualities for Good Linkbait

        Search Engine Optimization No Comments »

        I wanted to call this article Seven Habits of Highly Successful Linkbait but I didn t put in the survey work involved. I have seen and read a lot of linkbait though to say nothing of the number of articles I ve read about creating linkbait. As near as I can tell linkbait that does well for the site owner that originates it often has seven specific qualities....
        Build IT Knowledge with Current & Trusted Content Helps Employees Develop & Hone New Technical Programming Skills. Sign Up & Get Full Access.

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        Apr 28

        The Beginner’s Checklist for Small Business SEO

        Search Engine Optimization No Comments »

        Posted by Danny Dover

        For the last three months I have been hard at work learning SEO by optimizing a local small business website. The business is called Giggly Wiggly Preschool and is located in the Seattle suburb Issaquah, Washington. This Issaquah Preschool was the preschool I attended many years ago, so I am happy I was given the chance to give back to it. Optimizing for local search is a great way to learn SEO because there is less competition and it is easier to maintain a small and focused scope. It has been a slow process but has taught me a lot. The following is a checklist of all the tasks that have been necessary for me to generate great results. My hope is that this list can be used by inexperienced SEOs who are looking to learn the trade. (As a bonus, I have included checkboxes so you can print this and complete it in your spare time.)

        For those interested, I did save an archived version of the site from before I started working on it.

        The Beginner's Checklist for Small Business SEO

        Research

        Before you do any SEO you need to research the part of the web you will be trying to change. Many people believe this is the most important step in the SEO process. No skipping!

        Check BoxComplete the The Beginner's Checklist for Learning SEO - Completing all the tasks on this list will give you all the skills necessary to complete this checklist.

        Check BoxWrite down your goal - Why are you doing this? Why do you want people to find your client's site? Is simply viewing your client's site not enough? My goal was “I want local parents to find my client's website and be persuaded to register their children.”

        Check BoxBrainstorm and write down search queries - What words might people type into the search engines to look for your client's company? For my example, I came up with “Issaquah Preschool,” “Issaquah Daycare,” “Sammamish Preschool,” (a neighboring suburb) “Preschool Summer Camp,” and “Creative Preschool.” Your list should be longer.

        Check BoxResearch your chosen keywords - Sign up for Google Adwords and learn how to use the provided “keyword tool” and “ad text ideas” generator. Learn how to use Wordtracker (paid) and/or the Keyword Difficulty tool (free).

        Check boxUsing what you learned from keyword research, record what you believe to be the best keywords - For my project, I used “Issaquah Preschool,” “Issaquah Early Childhood,” “Preschool Summer Camp,” and about five others.

        Check Box Analyze the current Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for your keywords         - Who is ranking? What are they doing effectively and ineffectively? Investigate and get to know your competition.

        Check BoxCreate a list of your competition - Use the information from the previous step to create a list of competitors. You will use this to figure out how other sites were able to get into your targeted SERPs.

        Check BoxUse Yahoo Site Explorer to find the sources of your competitor's links - Record the sources of links your competitors have and save them for later.

        Yahoo Site Explorer


        Check Box Search for your client's site         - Use the site command on Google, Live and Yahoo to see if your client's site is indexed. Ex. “site:www.gigglywigglypreschool.com.” If your client's site is not indexed, you need to figure out what is preventing the search engines from crawling it. Be sure to also search the title tags of your client's most important pages to see where/if they rank. Record your results.

        Onsite

        Check BoxSign up and verify with Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, and Live Search Webmaster Center - This is an important step that will become necessary later.

        Check Box Let Google Analytics run for two weeks before doing any SEO         - This allows analytics to collect data and provides you with a baseline. I recommend you screen capture the relevant pages so you can show your client how your work has positively affected their site.

        Check BoxEvaluate the visual design of your client's site - If the site drives people away, no amount of SEO efforts will help. If the site looks terrible, find well designed sites in your client's niche.

        Check BoxCheck compatibility between browsers - Visit your client's site using Mozilla Firefox 2.x and Internet Explorer 6 and 7 and Safari 3.x. Remember to do this on both a Mac and a PC. You want to make sure your client's website renders correctly and won't drive away users.

        Check BoxCreate a new e-mail address specific to the site you are working on - Use this address for all e-mails pertaining to your project. This is especially important for link building.

        Check Box Look at your HTML code and optimize all of the SEO related tags         - If you are unsure what these are, reread the
        Beginner's Guide to Search Engine Optimization. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

            • Primary objective should be accomplished from the homepage
            • Keyword in title (unique for each page, include keywords)
            • Keyword in h1 on each page
            • Keyword in text
            • Optimize URL architecture (www.website.com/birds/eagle instead of www.website.com/allanimals/?type=bird&species=eagle). Use 301 redirects if you rename pages
            • Information architecture - as few clicks as possible
            • On relevant images include keywords in alt tags in filenames
            • No-follow appropriate links

        Check BoxDecide if you need a meta description - Modern search engines are great at scanning the text of websites  displacing applicable snippets based on user queries. You need to decide if you want to rely on the algorithm or create your own description. I suggest making your own meta description for your homepage and letting the engines figure out the rest. Remember the purpose of making your description is to convince potential customers to click on your link in the SERPs. Make it convincing and use your keywords.
         
        Check BoxAdd company address and phone number - Be sure to do this on every page. The search engines are smart enough to detect address and phone number formats. This data is essential to local search. I recommend adding the the following formatted data (example is for an American company) to the footer of all of your client's pages:

        Company Name
        1111 11th Pl NE
        City, State Zip
        (555) 555-5555


        Check Box Add a robots.txt         - This is important for a couple reasons. First, it allows you to specify exactly what pages major search engines can crawl. Second, including a robots.txt makes tracking search engines easier because they always download the file before navigating your client's site. This characteristic differentiates the SEs from normal human visitors.

        Offsite

        Check Box Add your client's business and website to the major search engine's local listings         - This is paramount as local search is likely to drive the majority of your traffic. These are the most important places to submit:

            • Yahoo Local
            • Google Local
            • Live Local
            • Ask City - UNVERIFIED. I think the best way to do this is send an e-mail to askcitybusiness@help.ask.com with the subject line "Ask City Feedback - Business" and include the business name, full address, full phone number, URL, business category, name, and e-mail address. (Can anyone confirm this?)
            • CitySearch (data on this site feeds Ask.com and Live)
            • Yelp (data on this site feeds Live and Yahoo)

           
        Check BoxAdd your client's website to industry specific directories - To find the prevalent directories, use the list of link sources you created earlier. Also, you can try searching for “(your client's local city name) business directory” and “(your client's industry) directory.” For example, I would search “Issaquah business directory” and “preschool directory.” Be sure to record which directories you add your client's site to and the usernames and passwords you use. You should use the e-mail address you created earlier for directory registrations. You should also make sure to use different passwords for different logins. You should always be thinking about maintaining your client's security.

        Check BoxTry to get the links your competition already has gotten - Use the list of link sources you generated from Yahoo Site Explorer and try to acquire links from those sources. This may be as simple as submitting a form or as cumbersome as e-mailing webmasters to find out their link addition policies. Always try to get your keywords in your link anchor text.

        Check boxGet more links - Scour the internet and find other sites that might want to link to your client's site (site:website.com "submit a link"). Remember the importance of the source of your links and the anchor text used. 100,000 links from spammy sites with bad anchor text will help you less than a single link with excellent keyword anchor text from a super authoritative site. A good place to start is to use the Juicy Link Finder. You should also consider your local chamber of commerce, local networking groups, and local complimentary businesses. Search engines like to see local links pointing at locally targeted websites.

        Check BoxDecide if utilizing social media sites is advantageous - Is your client in an industry that could actively participate in social media? If so, be sure not to be spammy and to only contribute quality and appropriate content. It is much more expensive to fix a ruined online reputation for a business than it is for a standard user. You may also want to consider adding your client's business to professional networks such as Linkedin.

        Check BoxCreate and submit sitemaps - Create a sitemap. Then login into Google Webmaster Central and Live Search Webmaster Tools and submit it.

        Check Box Optimize your client's site from Google's side         - Login to Google Webmaster Tools and click on the tools menu. You will want to set the correct geographical target and preferred domain.  In addition, you must also decide if you want to enable image search. It may drive you traffic but the traffic will unlikely be useful.

        Track and Improve

        Check BoxTrack progress - I recommend taking a monthly screenshot of all of the following SERPs. A screenshot is an easy way to gather a lot of information. The image files contain data on when they were taken so they are easy to organize. I recommend you do this for the following:

            • Ask Local SERP
            • Ask Main SERP
            • Google Local SERP
            • Google Main SERP
            • Google Webmaster Tools
            • Live Maps SERP
            • Live Local SERP
            • Live Search Webmaster Central
            • Yahoo Local SERP
            • Yahoo Main SERP
            • Yahoo Site Explorer

        Check BoxCreate and maintain a spreadsheet of your rankings - This gives you a resource to prove to your client that your work is necessary. Be sure to keep it updated monthly so that you are always aware of how you rank.

        Continue to make changes, build links, and record your results         - This step will never be completed. You should strive to become number one on all your SERPs and get so far ahead that none of your competitors will be able to compete.

        If you are an experienced SEO, feel free to share your opinions and expertise in the comments. This post is very much a work in progress. Also, as always, feel free to e-mail me or send me a private message if you have any suggestions on how I can make my posts more useful. (Contact details are available in my profile.)

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        Apr 28

        Yahoo Adds Click Filter Report

        Search Engine Optimization No Comments »

        Yahoo announced a new reporting feature in the search marketing portal that enables advertisers to see which clicks Yahoo has deemed to be invalid. The report is named the "Click Filter Report" and is available by clicking the ???Reports??? tab, then selecting ???Click Filter??? under the ???Traffic Quality Reports??? section in the Reports Navigator on the left side of the screen.

        In this report, you can see exactly which clicks Yahoo is classifying as clicks that were not from a valid source. According to Yahoo, you won't be billed for these clicks. Yahoo said they created the report for three reasons:

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