Archive for September, 2007
Laura Desmond, CEO of media agency Starcom Mediavest, has outlined their continued dedication towards digital by stating that she saw more digital ad spending in the short to medium term. She continued by saying that she predicted that Digital will be the third biggest ad expenditure at the Starcom Mediavest Group, behind national and local TV.
Other members of the panel at the New York Times CEO summit echoed this sentiment. Nick Brien, the CEO of Universal McCann highlighted that he saw digital as fundamental in the evolution of media agencies. Other panellists from agencies such as Mindshare and MPG also echoed the shift towards digital, however the long lamented lack of talent within this sector was highlighted as a significant barrier.
From a digital marketing agency perspective it is both good and bad to see the media agencies continuing to embrace digital. I personally have argued for a while, that the online marketing sector as a whole needs to evolve, and the further dedication to digital by more established offline agencies can only serve to enhance online as a viable advertising solution to clients, and hasten the perspective of online as a fundamental part of a marketing strategy.
Whilst it is going to present agencies such as ourselves with more high calibre competition, in the long term, I think it can only be good for digital marketing as a whole, whether it be behavioural or search marketing
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September 27th, 2007
According to recent research published by Neilsen, Internet advertising spend increased by over 23% in the US in the first half of 2007, despite a fall of 0.5% in overall advertising spend.
Another report by TNS Media Intelligence, offers similar figures, with online advertising spend of £2.7Bn reported for the first half of 2007, up 18% on the same time last year. This accounted for 7.6% of total advertising expenditure in the US, compared to over 11% in the UK. It should however be noted the TNS Media Intelligence report does not include paid search or broadband video advertising, something I would have suggested would have significantly impacted on those figures.
One thing is for sure, it will be interesting to see how the UK online advertising figures compare.
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September 25th, 2007
It appears the previous post regarding the demise of the Overture tool was slightly premature.
We are currently unable to establish exactly what data is being used. Some people have reported it is using May 2007 data, whilst others suggest it is January 2007 data.
Personally we would advise, perhaps it is time to review your toolkit, in case the tool stops working again…
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September 24th, 2007
On the 20th Sept. 2007, Google announced that they were ceasing Best Practise Funding (BPF) as of 2009, although some changes will be introduced in 2008. To a number of agencies in the UK such as Bigmouthmedia and Search Latitude this is big news, particurly as this will affect the margins the agencies can make on Paid Search campaigns (However I will add most of the afore mentioned agencies have already planned for the removal of BPF).
So why was Best Practise Funding introduced?
- Google wanted to encourage the use of Paid Search, and wanted large agencies to encourage clients to leverage extra budget towards PPC.
- Google needed a mechanism by which to reward such agencies and as such the Best Practise Funding (or BPF) was just one such way to do this
As Andrew Girdwood stated in his post on the E-Consultancy blog post, I would suggest that Google has achieved both its goals in terms of the above.
What changes are to be introduced in 2008
The Best Practise Funding is to be ceased as of 2009, however as of January 2008, the following changes will be introduced.
- No Growth Kicker from January 2008
- Existing tiers for rebates lowered from €4M upwards, making higher rebates achievable quicker. This will equate to a small increase in the total rebate agencies receive
- Removal of incentives for use of new formats such as video/mobile
- BPF targeting handled automatically so separate campaigns will no longer be required for non-BPF countries on multi-national projects and campaigns
So what does this mean?
To the majority of agencies - not very much I would suggest. However to the larger agencies where agency spend is over €250,000 per quarter this could have a significant effect. Agencies where spend falls under this threshold could find their margins thus significantly affected if they have either not planned for such an occurance, or secondly are very reliant on such ‘commisions’.
I personally would suggest this is more likely to affect the PPC reliant agencies rather than the more ‘integrated search agencies’ (a fairly obvious assumption I think most would agree), however I would also suggest this may also provide extra opportunities for smaller agencies outside of the so-called Top 5 (Latitude, Search Works, Publicis, WPP and Aegis) to compete against larger organisations, as everyone will be on a far more level playing field, where larger agencies where BPF was applicable could discount fees with the BPF in mind. I guess only time will tell.
We would also suggest this should result in greater professionalism within the paid search service sector. Many of the larger agencies have already suggested those offering high value services and greater professionalism are likely to benefit from this.
Only time will tell what is going to happen, but one thing is for sure - its going to be an interesting time for Search Marketing and Paid Search Marketing in particular
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September 21st, 2007
Search Marketing is changing, and changing quickly. Terms such personalised search, local search optimisation or social media optimisation are not just ‘this is going to be the next big thing’ type terms, they are the now, and they should be part of your online marketing toolkit.
Clients are spending more on online marketing than ever before with a recent Internet advertising report quoting that spend on digital marketing had surpassed the £2bn mark, with spend in many online marketing sectors more than that for direct marketing. I would however suggest that clients in many instances (particularly those with less budget), still perceive more value in offline marketing. So how can we change this?
More focus on ROI
There are still a number of agencies out there that determine the success of the campaigns by the amount of number 1 rankings they have, with regular ranking reports the norm. There has been a shift across many digital marketing agencies recently towards a more ROI focussed success measurement where the number of leads, sales and enquiries as a direct result of activity being used as a benchmark rather than the number of terms.
Whilst we personally monitor visibility in the SERPS, we do not use it a criteria for success. Sure, good ranking in many cases is indicative of a good potential ROI, in my opinion as a online marketing specialist, our role is more about successful marketing. There are also other issues in using visibility on terms as criteria for success including:
- Results are not constant across data centres - therefore not a thorough representation of where you are currently ranked
- Rankings are not indicative of success - I may be number one for ’seo wizard helmshore’, however with Helmshore being a small town in Lancashire, I would suggest I am very unlikely to get enough traffic off to make a living. Admittedly that is a very bad example, however it is indicative that a badly researched and implemented campaign, can produce impressive results in the number of no.1 terms, however it is unlikely to produce any significant difference to the clients bottom line - and as such - why is he going to bother doing SEO again.
- Here today, gone tomorrow - Rankings are not constant. Google, MSN and Yahoo change their algorithms constantly and as such results bounce around for weeks on end. Other improvements in the index have seen new content finding its way into the index far quicker these days, and therefore included in results.
Web Analytics therefore should have an even more important part to play, not just in terms of shaping an online marketing strategy, but also in terms of measuring success. Comprehensive filtering and goal setting should be the norm, giving both you and your client scope for successful measurement of your campaign
Change the perception of SEO as a black art - ongoing
The perception of SEO as a black art is slowly dying, however I would suggest there are still two many people having bad experiences with search marketing. On FusedNations blog this morning, MarketingGuy blogged about ‘Is SEO in the UK in a mess‘. Personally on the whole, I would have to say no. There are a number of SEO agencies such as Search Latitude, BigMouthMedia, Greenlight, Spannerworks, The Search Works and Steak Media for example that have really increased the profile of search marketing particularly to larger clients, however I would suggest there is still a subset within the industry that will always be responsible for affecting perception through badly advised or implemented campaigns.
Unfortunately I would suggest much of the problem lies in perception yet. There are a number of people who are still working to the submission/meta tags approach. I can count the first agency I worked at in 2001 as just such an example, despite a well packaged online marketing section to the website. To me this is part of the problem. I have recently interviewed a number of potential candidates for an SEO role, and have to say that there seems to be a massive gap between potential candidates - those who know and understand SEO - and those that merely take orders. I would suggest that there is a lack of good SEO’s in the UK (backed up by the horrendous number of recruitment agencies I still find phoning myself up - trying to fill senior search marketing positions).
Anyhow back on topic. Many web development agencies offer SEO as part of their service - however many do not offer the professional service and approach that a search marketing specialist would offer them, and as such these experiences can then manifest themselves in the industry as a whole. I suggested in response to the afore mentioned Fused Nation post the following:
TBH its about time, we started looking at giving the industry a more professional front. All the ‘let people look at what we have done’ is great - but when all the ’snake oilers’ are doing it to (albeit on terms like ’skiing holidays sahara’ or some other low volume, nonsense term) it can be difficult to sort the wheat from the chaf, particularly when I personally am of the opinion that the true value of a well structured Online marketing campaign is still very undervalued commercially (ie we know it can help us - but we understand offline).Personally as a collective, it is about time, we signed up to some central guidelines/charter (not paid membership affiliated - at the end of the day its like you say - its can often a smaller agency that does the reputation damage - not the big IAB/Sempo affiliated agency - though I would suggest some of your four examples may fit into that).”
As a footnote for part 1, we as an SEO community have come along way, however there seems little point in resting on our laurels. We have a good solid core to build on, and one in which to make a respected and successful sector
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September 19th, 2007
Following AOL’s move of its headquarters to New York, it has announced the introduction of what it has formalled called Platform A. Platform A is an integrated ad buying platform and network that AOL says will have a broader reach than any other ad network currently in the market. AOL have also integrated aspects of recent acquisitions such as Advertising.com, Third Screen Media and behavioural company Tacoda, in order to provide an impressive array of functionality, capable of competing agains competitors such as Google, Yahoo and MSN.
An excert from the release stated:
“The new entity, called Platform A, will offer advertisers access to the most sophisticated targeting and measurement tools available in the marketplace across Platform A’s unmatched network of third-party sites, as well as AOL’s owned and operated sites. Platform A already reaches more than 90% of the domestic online audience, according to comScore Media Metrix. Platform A builds on the success of Advertising.com, which operates the largest third-party display network, and integrates behavioral targeting leader TACODA, Third Screen Media, which operates the largest mobile media network, market leading video ad serving platform Lightningcast, and ADTECH’s global ad serving platform.”
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September 18th, 2007
It appears that the Yahoo keyword suggestion tool is no more - whether this is long term or short term case is still open to debate. Data updates for the US were stopped in January 2007, and the UK data followed in May 2007. However as of late last week (week ending 16th September 2007), the keyword tool stopped returning results, leaviing many small and medium search marketing specialists short of a statistical basis for keyword research. So are there any other solutions…
Google external keyword tool
URL: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Thoughts:
Quite useful in terms of working out popularity of terms, however is a little lacking when it comes to predicting traffic volumes.
WordTracker
URL: http://www.wordtracker.com/
Thoughts:
For a UK SEO I would suggest using WordTracker only with the UK data. However it should be noted this is a payable option with pricing as follows:
- £15 per week
- £29 per month
- £149 per year
Keyword Discovery
URL: http://www.keyworddiscovery.com
Thoughts:
Very thorough, and more pricey.
Yahoo suggestion tool Mark II
URL: ?
Thoughts:
Not much we can say about this. RustyBrick from SearchEngineRoundtable has suggested there may be one on the way. Only time will tell
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September 17th, 2007
Dave Naylor recently wrote an article on 5 things he would do if he were Google. At the end of his post, he asks what we we do?
Before I start, though, I will just add some thoughts on Dave’s comments, particularly those relating to pagerank.
1) Completely agree with him on his point ‘Stop displaying Pagerank it only drives link buying and selling’. Personally think many SEO’s (probably the more junior SEO’s) get very hung up on pagerank at the detriment of their SEO. Doing something like this may encourage better linkage with people focussing more on relevancy, and research as part of their linkbuilding.
2) Show showing site:… Got to say I slightly disagree with this. I can understand (and agree with the points he raises at the end of this point) - however in my opinion there are a alot of instances where having such a command is very useful. For example, if I were doing some initial research on a client, this would be one of my first ports of call in terms of establishing the current website from an SEO perspective.
3) Regarding redirects - Completely agree
4) Subdomains - To a certain degree agree here - however in certain instances I do condone the use of subdomains and as such, perhaps such a ‘hardhitting’ solution would be a step too far.
5) Displaying adsense on non indexed pages - Again probably needs some further thoughts - i can see where hes coming from - but I have in my head certain reasons - as to why I wouldn’t want a page indexed but would want adsense on it.
Anyhow enough of adressing Dave Naylors point’s, its only fair I provide some of my own points (and let Dave have a bash at mine)
1) More open long term strategy. Mentioned this on my previous post regarding Paid Links - however currently Google is addressing Paid Linkage, before it was Recipricol Linkage. There is only one type of link building tactic left - free, however since it is the intention Google is interested in (ie artificially affecting SERPS by link building for SEO purposes), it probably is only a matter of time before this is targetted. However by the mere fact linkage is part of the algorithm and there is potential ROI to be acquired online (and thus visibility on search engines important), then the business sector will always be interested in ensuring they are as high as possible in the search engines.
In my eyes (and maybe in my eyes only), perhaps rather than looking at origin and intention - focus on better link building - ie relevancy. I can’t help thinking that by targeting the quality and relevancy of the linkage rather than how it was sourced, would improve this scenario and surely this would be more in line with Googles mindset and quality driven approach.
2) Closer interaction with Search engine marketing specialists
Please note search engine marketing specialists not just seo specialists. I am not by any means saying this should be a howto session on influencing algorithms, just perhaps closer intergration with the industry, perhaps looking down a quality driven approach. I can’t help thinking that the search engines have a part to play in developing the perception of search marketing. At the end of the day, there is no getting away from the fact that Search Marketing and SEO are here to stay (in real terms- is it realistic that Google think that every company is going to have someone specifically designated to working on their own sites - surely not and at the end of the day SEO’s are just outsourced search marketing specialists.)
If we can work on the quality however of the people within the industry - not so much the top tier - more the small organisations. I personally have read a number of ‘my seo did this, my seo did that and it got me banned” type stories from new clients, which then affect how I work with them. We personally look at a holistic approach to our online marketing and as such, a client coming in from SEO may be cross-sold Paid Search (PPC) or Affiliate Marketing services as well depending on their requirements/targets.
Therefore the initial negative perceptions they have of SEO could affect how they perceive search marketing as a whole. Anyhow back on track - Google’s accreditation of such activity (along the lines maybe of their analytics experts ‘accreditation’) surely would give clients more confidence of not only who they are working with but search marketing as a whole.
3) Link: Really is this worth keeping. A snapshot of inbound linkage to your site. Personally can’t think of the last time I used it - and I would suggest it confuses things from a client perspective rather than helps. Either improve (ala site explorer and incorporate into WebMaster Tools) or do away. (PS maybe webmaster tools could get more advanced features based on above accreditation - ala adwords)
4) Expansion of webmaster tools - Potentially such a good tool from a search marketing perspective. OK this isn’t likely to make them money by adding to it - but surely they could offer Google Webmaster Tools Gold - which gives you increased functionality/reporting/analysis etc. Functionality then such as expanding SERP positioning, link reporting etc could then be incorporated with a ROI for Google.
5) Noindex/Nofollow and Robots.txt - Again mentioned this before - but perhaps this does need review. Noindex and Nofollow were great for Backrub but surely Google 2007 is a long way from that model. Nofollow for the use of paid links surely is not right symantically never mind anything else, so perhaps such functionality needs to be reviewed. This possibly is a conversation bigger than merely a quick refence on a post - but further though and discussion regarding robots use for search engine purposes is required particularly given the advances in web related technology over the last couple of years
Just a couple of thoughts, feel free to give me some feedback on the above.
PS. Dave N - if you do read this - are you going to the SEO Manchester do 
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September 12th, 2007
Not really a part four, more a recap of other activity, and perspectives regarding the hot potato in th search engine world or rather SEO world that is paid links
John Andrews - SEOs the card counters of the web
Brilliant overview of Googles approach to the paid linkage issue. Aaron Wall features particularly prominently in the article given his recent comments regarding paid links
Dan Thies - I for one welcome the New SEO Overlords
Probably more rounded commentary of the current paid links issue, however all the same Dan puts forward some very pressing questions relating to the implementation of the nofollow strategy.
Loren Baker - Google loves transparent links and Hitcounter spam
Slightly different take, however really here to back up why perhaps focussing on quality of the links is probably more important than merely focussing on how they were acquired from Loren Baker
John Biundo - The Paid Links debate - Shades of Grey
John Biundo assesses the Paid links landscape following SES San Jose.
Andrew Girdwood (BigmouthMedia) - Why Paid links and adsense are not the same
BigMouthmedia are big nofollow masters, and Andrew Girdwood their head of search clearly lays his cards on the table regarding his thoughts on paid links and nofollow (oh and that of Bigmouthmedia)
There is no doubt the debate certainly continues to rumble on - as to the paid linkage and the merits or lack of. We will continue to watch the industry for further articles and as we find em add em (or feel free to add some for us )
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September 11th, 2007
I was recently speaking to a PR colleague of mine, following some correspondance recently with her. During the conversation she raised a number of points relating to the e-mail I had sent and highlighted that some of the terminology used was overly technical and could be simplified for ‘human consumption’
At first I will say I was slightly taken aback. However, having further thought about it, I would suggest this is a problem I could throw at many SEO specialists in the industry. I have lost touch with the number of search engine optimisation experts that use pr syndication, lsi seo, social media optimisation and the like willy nilly. Is it any wonder that SEO is still regarded as a black art - or rather more of a misunderstood profession.
Education vs Evolution
Terms such as the above only make sense to us online marketing professionals. Ask many marketing manager what SEO is, and I would suggest you will get a fairly blank look, never mind Social Media Optimisation. Therefore this begs the question.
Do we need to educate peers such as marketing managers OR do we need to evolve and talk to these people in a language they understand.
I would suggest a mixture of both would suffice. We as online marketeers do over-engineer much of what we do - however the fact remains much of what we do is specialised - and often overlooked during any online or dare i say offline marketing campaigns. Internet Marketing has its own little specialisations much as other sectors do, which will always make it different, however if we could talk more as marketeers and less as techies - surely this will only serve to enhance the benefits and standing of online marketing and search marketing in particular.
However the education aspect certainly shouldn’t be overlooked. In a recent article on advertising age Mark Simon mentioned the following:
“4.SEARCHLESS” ADVERTISING.
Many CMOs have no problem authorizing multimillion-dollar TV and print campaigns, but their systematic neglect of search marketing borders on the criminally myopic. Search-engine marketing doesn’t drive demand; it responds to it, which means that unless your brand is present to capture post-ad queries, you’ve failed to close the marketing loop. Plus, it’s quite likely your competitors are already exploiting that failure with strategies to poach the awareness you’ve spent so much to generate.”
This unfortunately happens a lot within the advertising sector ( I read an article highlighting this on the Muller - ‘Lick the Lid of life’ campaign ). Just imagine how effective some offline only campaigns could be if search or online marketing as a whole were introduced with the aim of enhancing what message the offline is trying to convey. Well needless to say - I would suggest in many cases results speak for themselves.
To conclude - we are new sector, a new profession - and we are still finding our way. Maybe though - we just need to find it a little quicker
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September 10th, 2007
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