Has Yahoo peed the carpet with its new ad campaign?
Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz is tired of the press trying to dictate what Yahoo should and shouldn't do with its business. But the company's new $100 million ad campaign, which was met with much derision from the press when it launched last month, does not appear to be doing well with consumers.
In an interview with The New York Times this week, Bartz explained her views on feedback:
"I have the puppy theory. When the puppy pees on the carpet, you say something right then because you don’t say six months later, 'Remember that day, January 12th, when you peed on the carpet?' That doesn’t make any sense. 'This is what’s on my mind. This is quick feedback.' And then I’m on to the next thing."
Is it time to admit that Yahoo peed the carpet?
Are marketers moving their Google search dollars to Facebook's display ad business?
Wired's argument this spring that Facebook is the next Google may have legs. According to Silicon Alley Insider, Facebook is skimming ad dollars from Google's search business.
SAI's Internet Analyst spoke with an ad agency that has noticed brands quietly moving ad dollars from Google search to Facebook's new self-serve display ads. If this becomes a trend, it could be huge for Facebook.
The holiday season looks bright for search, Bing, and a few others
Advertising spend may not explode this holiday season, but some marketers will have reason to celebrate — namely those working in search.
Display has been getting a lot of attention lately, with brands like Google stepping up their presence in the area, but search is still looking like the reliable choice for the holiday season. And if someone in particular has reason to be excited this season, it's the people working at Bing.
Buying or selling SEO links? Look at the trouble you’re causing
How many times have you sat through an SEO
presentation and heard 'it’s all about links, and one link from the BBC
is worth more than 1,000 low level directories.'
Google relies on media links to calculate PageRank, a gauge of website authority. These links bring order to search results, which is why everyone uses Google, which is why they make so much money. Brands therefore need media links to achieve SEO success in Google, which is fair enough.
But what do media owners get for providing the authority map behind Google’s meteoric rise? Plummeting advertising revenues as Google hoovers up the lot. This seems a bit of a kick in the teeth, but what can they do about it?
Q&A: Matthew Don on Flash and SEO
I'm not exactly a Flash fanboy, largely on the grounds that many Flash-based sites suffer from Rubbish User Experience Syndrome (RUES) and all too often they don't play by Google's rules.
I can never understand why a web-based business would choose to ignore the fundamentals of SEO, or why some agencies push Flash towards their clients knowing that it isn't an especially Google-friendly technology. All style and no substance. But Flash has its place, especially for campaign-based sites, and recent improvements to the way search engines make sense of Flash-based websites have made it more acceptable than it used to be.
I've been talking to Skive technical director Matthew Don, who explains why he thinks Flash and SEO can be happy bedfellows, as opposed to mortal enemies.
Sequoia Capital takes simplicity too far with its new website
As far as VCs go, Sequoia Capital is a legendary firm. The startups it has funded include Apple, EA, Yahoo, YouTube and a little company called Google.
That last company seems to be the inspiration for Sequoia's newly-redesigned website, which now sports little more than a search box on its homepage.
Google: Ad position does not affect conversion rates
Web surfers may be more likely to click on search results ranked higher on a web page, but purchase decisions are not so reliant on search positioning, according to Google.
In a post on Inside AdWords today, Google revealed that the position of key words doesn't affect conversion rates very much at all. If your company is spending time or money trying to get to the top of a page's search results. Don't bother.
Google wants to create your search ad for you
"What if you told us what you were trying to sell and we matched that to the queries of our users?" asked Nick Fox, business product management director for Google's AdWords team. What if search ads just...happened? You tell us what you're selling, we do the rest."
Keyword-free ads are just one example of the potential future of paid search advertising Fox presented at Search Engine Strategies today. Google is also looking at CPA ad models and "smarter formats."
Bing ads just might be working. Microsoft's paid click share is up 44%
Microsoft may have received heckles when the company announced plans to spend $100 million advertising its new search engine Bing. But two month into that outlay, Microsoft's paid click share is up 44% and that spend is starting to look less laughable.
Why? Because search dominance is as much about performance as it is about perception. And getting people to think you have the best search engine is basically the same thing as having the best search engine. The trouble is that's easier said than done.
18 observations on Twitter and SEO
I’m not one of those people who claims that social media doesn’t do anything for your search results. On the contrary, I think it absolutely helps SEO.
For some, any notion that Twitter could influence your search rankings was blown into smithereens when it was revealed that Google pays no attention to links from Twitter. Call the cops!
That kind of thinking totally misses the point, because Twitter is a network of networks. Yours and mine, for starters. And I bet you that they’re overlapping right now, if you’re reading this and also active on Twitter. People talk beyond the virtual walls of Twitter. The network effect is an almighty thing when it’s in full swing. Raising awareness in a meaningful and relevant way is what Twitter is all about, as far as our business is concerned.
In any event, Twitter can also directly affect Google rankings for you in a positive way, starting with universal search...
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
