May 13, 2008

Googles Beta Dashboard View

posted by Charles Nevery in category: Adwords

Today logging into a new Adwords account that was created about a week ago I find a new dashboard that Google is beta testing.

I believe that this is a huge improvement seeing how now you can separate the Search Network cost and conversions from the Content Network cost and conversions at the campaign level. You can also sort your data view by the following –

• All (Search + Content): See separate campaign statistics for the search and content network, as well as an aggregate line combining the two. Click the link in the CTR or Conv. Rate column to hide clickthrough rate (CTR) and conversion rate information, which will also switch the page to the Summary view.

• Search: See statistics for the search network only.

• Content: See statistics for the content network only.

• Summary: See aggregate statistics only for each campaign. Click the link in the CTR or Conv. Rate column to show CTR and conversion rate information broken down by search and content network, which will also switch the page to the All (Search + Content) view.

I see this dashboard as a step in the right direction from usability and a data model prospective.

Googles Beta Dashboard View
Posted by Charles Nevery at 10:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)
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May 07, 2008

Social Media News: Socially-networked Friend Requests Via SMS

posted by Brett Lane in category: Mobile SEO

There's a new company online who is looking to make it easier for mobile users to create connections via their Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin profiles. rmbrME is an innovative solution helping people connect via mobile phone on the fly. With our busy lifestyles we need to be able to make connections easily as well as keep our social network profiles updated from day to day. rmbrME describes itself by stating the following: rmbrME gives you the power to send a socially-networked friend request to anyone you meet in real life using just SMS. Simply text their phone number or email address to RMBRME (762763) and we’ll send along a convenient link that unlocks your Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin or other profile. In a couple of clicks, they add you as a friend, and you stay connected. We even keep track of when and where you meet people so that you can remember them more easily than ever.

This system has the potential to make it easier to bridge the gap between mobile phones and social network connections by helping end users stay connected from one platform.

Social Media News: Socially-networked Friend Requests Via SMS
Posted by Brett Lane at 10:12 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
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May 06, 2008

Yahoo!'s WarningTo End-Users

posted by Sean Bolton in category: Yahoo

Here I am on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon doing some searching on Yahoo! (this doesn’t happen too often I might add) and what is this I see???? A WARNING from Yahoo! telling me the following in bolded red letters at the top of page three of the SERP's "1 potentially harmful website is marked on this page." Hmmm...

I began scrolling down the page and find the following immersed in natural search results:

This is the first I've seen of it's kind and have a feeling Yahoo! is setting a new precedence for end-user security when searching their index. Personally, I think its an incredibly valuable tool to at least provide some level of insight to Yahoo! users in terms of end-user security risks when surfing Yahoo! search index and/or providing personal information to sites that may be selling your email, demographic data, etc., to third parties. The tool itself is a Beta product called "SearchScan" which is powered by McAfee. If you scroll over the mid page listing in red, a pop up occurs letting you know specific details on why the listing has been flagged by McAfee as a potentially harmful site to visit.

Brilliant play Yahoo!

My question ultimately is when will Google or MSN follow suit or will the search engines at some point take data like this and just omit these types of sites from their search results entirely?

Yahoo!'s WarningTo End-Users
Posted by Sean Bolton at 05:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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May 03, 2008

Breaking: Yang Googles Ballmer

posted by John Lustina in category: SEO Industry News

Just when it seemed the twain might soon be making their way down the aisle, arm-in-arm, the mere spectre of Google is enough to call off the nuptials: Mashable has the goods, including Balmer's e-mail that is really more about Google than Yahoo:

We regard with particular concern your apparent planning to respond to a “hostile” bid by pursuing a new arrangement that would involve or lead to the outsourcing to Google of key paid Internet search terms offered by Yahoo! today. In our view, such an arrangement with the dominant search provider would make an acquisition of Yahoo! undesirable to us for a number of reasons:

He goes on to devote almost half of his e-mail to explaining how bad an idea Yang's Google threat is. I caught this on my Mashable feed as I began watching the original Frankenstein movie with my kids. No kidding.

Breaking: Yang Googles Ballmer
Posted by John Lustina at 10:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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May 02, 2008

Implementing a 301 (Permanent) Redirect - Part Two

posted by James Gunn in category: Organic SEO

Back in September 2005 I wrote a post discussing how to 301 redirect in .htaccess. In that post I did not mention two important points:

1. Always re-upload your modified .htaccess file in ASCII mode. FTP programs generally transfer files in Binary mode. The modified .htaccess file will not work if it's transferred in Binary.

2. When you edit the .htaccess file in notepad or other text editors they tend to add .txt file extensions on the end. You have to go ahead and upload the file with the extension and then rename it once it's on the server (remove the .txt).

Quoting myself from 2005 (2005?)

There could be many reasons why you may need to use a 301 server-side redirect. Usually having to do with a site redesign, pages that no longer exist, branding issues, marketing campaigns and/or a new domain name.

Server-side redirects are the safe way (as opposed to the meta refresh technique) to transfer your traffic to the new site while still retaining your search engine rankings.

The Moved Permanently directive in the HTTP header tells the spider that the page they crawled has permanently relocated to a new URL.

It will take usually 6-8 weeks to see the old site drop from the rankings and the new site indexed. In the meantime you will probably see fluctuations in your rankings and/or traffic until things settle down to a comfortable level.

How To Implement a 301 Re-direct

Permanent Redirects using .htaccess:

Download the .htaccess file from your server's root directory. If there is no .htaccess file present then go ahead and make one in notepad and save as .htaccess (just as it appears, no extension). Upload it to your root directory after you've made the changes (in ASCII mode).

Place the following code in the .htaccess file:

redirect 301 /index.html http://www.thenewsite.com/index.html - to redirect a single page
or
redirect 301 / http://www.thenewsite.com/index.html - to redirect a whole site


The initial command must be the path to the file name of the old page (/index.html)
That’s followed by a space
The final command must be the full URL of the new page (http://www.thenewsite.com/index.html)
If there is already code in the .htaccess file, place the new code at the bottom.
Upload the file to the server's root directory (in ASCII mode).

Here are a few other ways to redirect using your .htaccess file. These methods require the Apache Mod_Rewrite URL Rewriting Engine to be in place:

-Are you planning to move from an old domain to a new domain? There are many different reasons why you would need to do this. Place this code into your .htaccess file (modify to your URL):

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.thenewsite.com/$1 [R=301,L]

-Do you want to redirect from a non-www version of your URL to the www version so you can avoid the possibility of duplicate content? Try this code in your .htaccess file (modify to your URL)

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
rewritecond %{http_host} ^thenewsite.com [nc]
rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.thenewsite.com/$1 [r=301,nc]

Permanently redirect using IIS:

Start/Programs/Administrative Tools/Internet Services Manager

Click on the -Home Directory- tab.
Click the -A Redirection to a URL-.
Enter a URL in the -Redirected To:- section
Check the -A permanent redirection for this resource- to make it a 301. Leave it unchecked and it becomes a 302.
Click –Apply-

Implementing a 301 (Permanent) Redirect - Part Two
Posted by James Gunn at 12:28 PM | Comments (1)
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April 30, 2008

Real and Imagined Errors in Google Sitemap Feeds

posted by Erik Dafforn in category: Crawling and Indexing

When you upload your XML sitemap feed to your server -- especially if it's GZipped -- don't expect it to look pretty. I got a nervous call from a client because when he called the XML feed URL in his browser, he saw this:

While it looks like an error, it's really not. Not in the traditional sense, at least. The error here is that your browser (in this case, Firefox) isn't able to view the file without a little help -- specifically, a stylesheet that tells it how it should look to human viewers.

The bottom line is that this message doesn't mean that engines can't read your XML feed -- only that you can't see it. To see whether Google can process it, for example, check the Sitemap Summary report. For some reason, this report isn't in the main GWT left nav. To find it, you need to click the "Details" link at the far right of the Sitemap Overview report. When you click that link, here's what you see:

Real sitemap errors do exist, even in the example I used above. In this case, I've inadvertently included in the sitemap a URL that I also excluded via robots.txt. So I'm sending Google a mixed message there. Fortunately, the robots.txt file overrides the URL's inclusion in the sitemap, so it ends up being more of a gentle nudge than a true, crippling error. If the error doesn't specifically say that the sitemap is invalid and unreadable, then it's probably not.

Real and Imagined Errors in Google Sitemap Feeds
Posted by Erik Dafforn at 08:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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April 24, 2008

Foundational SEO: Branching Out With Best Practices Keyword Research

posted by Doug Ausbury in category: Keywords

In a recent interview with Top SEOs , I was asked a question about the continuously changing SEO environment.

I replied, "I believe there are some foundational things about Search Engine Optimization that have not changed much over the last 10 years. Staying true to some of these core, foundational concepts of best practices SEO has played a significant role in the success of Intrapromote."

I encountered a very good example of this while reviewing one of our client campaigns.

We have an ecommerce client with a robust store offering a little over 500 products. With a list of specific product names in hand, I tasked our keyword research experts to dig deep into keyword research to see how people are currently searching for all 500 of their products.

When I say "dig deeper", I often use the word picture with clients of keyword research being like a large tree. Comprehensive keyword research starts at the base of the tree with broad keywords, then considers every single major branch of the tree and (here's the comprehensive part) every single large, medium and small branch connected to these major branches.

Our specific search behavior questions in this case:

1. Are search engine users searching for variations of these product names?
2. If so, what are these variations and what is the potential of driving additional traffic to the client's site by targeting these variations?

The end result of our comprehensive keyword research? Going down every major and minor tree branch revealed exactly 224 variations of the 500 product names being used at search engines. We estimate that these 224 variations account for over 2,000 user searches every single day at search engines. Since traffic is what we're after, each of these variations have now become new targets for our SEO, Link Building, and Social Media Marketing efforts for this client.

So, done correctly and regularly, comprehensive keyword research is a great example of a foundational SEO activity that has not changed very much. We even found that for one major brand utilizing various cartridge add-ons, search engine users don't search for "[product name] cartridges", they search for "[product name] software". Good to know that inquiring Googlers may be headed to a competitors site if our client's site is not optimized and performing well for variations of this product name along with "software".

Bottom line reminders:

1. A cardinal sin of keyword research is to not look for every possible variation of your product names.
2. Never, ever assume how people search for your products or services.

Foundational SEO: Branching Out With Best Practices Keyword Research
Posted by Doug Ausbury at 11:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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April 23, 2008

How to Take Advantage of the How-To Video Craze

posted by Lisa Santora in category: viral videos

As reported in today's NYT article, "Making Money, the How-To Way," by Miguel Helft, how-to videos are growing in popularity, and even "folding towels so they look just so" can be a trendy video subject.

So why do people like how-to videos anyway? Maybe they want to learn something, but many times these videos are great entertainment too. My all-time how-to favorite is Video Jug's "How to Fight a Duel," which could come in handy the next time I need to fend off my neighbor's dog.

I really can't stand the reality shows on TV, and if you are selective online you can find some real how-to video gems, like "How to Fight a Bear," or the more mellow "How to Care for Puppies."

Marketing using how-to videos can be a new avenue for companies to explore. Users probably won't enjoy an overt pitch, and since the idea is to get the videos to spread virally, setting up an "expert" series is a great idea. Say your company sells cowboy boots. If you shoot a series of videos on "How Acme Cowboy boots are made," you can present a short piece on the quality and uniqueness of your product. You could even create videos on "How-to select the right cowboy boots to go with your outfits," optimize them (video submission sites like ExpertVillage.com provide sections for written summaries), embed them on your site and more.

Now there must be a how-to video on how to make a good how-to video...

How to Take Advantage of the How-To Video Craze
Posted by Lisa Santora at 05:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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Update on Google Showing Excluded URLs as Sitelinks

posted by Erik Dafforn in category: Crawling and Indexing

A little over a month ago, I wrote about Google showing robots-excluded URLs as Sitelinks. Here's a shot of what Google showed for the query [seo speedwagon] in mid-March:

The ip login link was (and is) excluded via robots.txt. A month prior (in February), a link to one of our monthly archives -- a page with the robots "noindex" meta tag -- appeared as a Sitelink also.

Since then, the SERP has been cleaned up. I use the passive voice because I don't exactly know who to thank. Either the algo picked it up on its own, or someone hand-washed it. Either way, it looks better now:

I'm not sure if we're an isolated case, so if you have any examples of excluded URLs still showing up in Sitelinks, please let us know in the comments.

Update on Google Showing Excluded URLs as Sitelinks
Posted by Erik Dafforn at 08:12 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)
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April 09, 2008

Content is King, But Who Has Time to Read it All?

posted by Lisa Santora in category: Misc

With all the writing I do comes hours of associated research. While this is usually enjoyable, time is of the essence, and it's important to have a few shortcuts to help wade through all the PDFs, articles and brochures I read daily.

For years I've used a product called Copernic Summarizer, which actually goes beyond the summarizing capabilities within Word. It can summarize any web page or file, and creates a handy list of key terms at the left hand side of the summary, which I can scan, and it highlights terms that interest me throughout the document. Summarizer is great for getting a quick gist of a long PDF, and great for collecting key phrases from a document when I am researching an industry I'm not familiar with.

While I'm on the "less is more" theme, it's fun to see how much can be said in as few words as possible. Wired has a great "Six Words" article that features various celebrities and their pithy comments. Check out some of these gems: "It’s behind you! Hurry before it" - Rockne S. O’Bannon; "Failed SAT. Lost scholarship. Invented rocket." - William Shatner; and my favorite: "Steve ignores editor's word limit and..."- Steven Meretzky

Content is King, But Who Has Time to Read it All?
Posted by Lisa Santora at 01:50 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
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April 07, 2008

Search Engine Cartoon

posted by Sean Bolton in category: SEO Humor

I saw this cartoon on MSNBC and just have to share it with our fellow passengers of the wagon.

The cartoon is dead on in my opinion as it relates to company size and obviously hints to the MSN/Yahoo! deal potential.

Search Engine Cartoon
Posted by Sean Bolton at 10:15 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
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April 04, 2008

Social Media News: Sprout Review

posted by Brett Lane in category: Social Media

Here's a site for those of you looking to create widgets that combine many forms of multi-media content: Sprout. They describe their site as "a quick and easy way for beginner and pro users to create living content including websites, banners, videos, music, photos, RSS feeds, calendars and more."

Here are a few examples of recently created Sprouts:

Sprouts can be promotional, personal, or informational and allow creators to integrate RSS, videos, images, podcasts, etc. into their widgets to make them come alive. Sprouts have also been described as "interactive and portable chunks of web content, widgets, mashups or mini-sites."

Sprouts are a great way to get your interactive content into the hands consumers looking for multimedia to consume. Sprouts have many cool features including:

Pre-built Templates-

Easy Asset Management-

Flexible Components-

Functional Publishing Platform-

Advanced Tracking Options-

I have a feeling this site will make major headway in the coming months as corporations and consumers get word of their highly functional widget offering.

Social Media News: Sprout Review
Posted by Brett Lane at 10:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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April 01, 2008

Google Serves Ads Based on Previous Queries

posted by Erik Dafforn in category: Adwords

In 2005 (as reported by Search Engine Journal), Google applied for a patent called "Results based personalization of advertisements in a search engine." Part of the patent abstract reads as follows:

The search results are personalized based on a user profile of the user providing the query. The user profile describes interests of the user, and can be derived from a variety of sources, including prior search queries, prior search results, expressed interests, demographic, geographic, psychographic, and activity information.

Until now, I hadn't seen any instances of Adwords being served based on prior queries in the same session. (This doesn't mean it hasn't happened -- only that I haven't seen it.) But recently I've begun to notice it when signed in to my Google account. Each time I've noticed it (it's been hard to reproduce) it typically occurs after several searches for one particular topic, followed by a sudden shift to a query for another topic. For example, here is one recent search pattern:

[laptops]
[laptop repair]
[laptop parts]
[trucks]

Here is the resulting SERP for the [trucks] query. I've compressed the page so you can see both organic and paid results:

Here is the query set for the second example:

[gloves]
[work gloves]
[gardening gloves]
[jersey gloves]
[heavy duty gloves]
[wheelbarrows]

And here are the organic/paid results for [wheelbarrow]:

The second example is admittedly less convincing, because it's plausible that glove retailers could purchase bids for "wheelbarrow" terms. But I was unable to see any "glove" ads in subsequent searches for "wheelbarrow" terms.

This is interesting because query results like this allow the ad to really stick out contextually and give the advertiser the whole stage, so to speak, for a certain term. And even though the user has changed gears and is searching for something new, the "old" vein of queries is certainly still in his or her mind. I would love any feedback about how widespread these results are, CTR data for "residual" query ads, etc.

Google Serves Ads Based on Previous Queries
Posted by Erik Dafforn at 07:39 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
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March 27, 2008

What Happens When Your Paid Search Landing Page Gets “Site Linked”?

posted by Brent Sharp in category: PPC

Recently, I was trying to decode some strange results that were showing up in my analytical reports. It appeared as though natural search results were showing up in my paid traffic reports. We racked our brains trying to figure it out, at first thinking that we had some tracking installed improperly or something along those lines. When that didn’t pan out we looked a little deeper to the actual key phrases that were showing up. On a hunch I typed one into a search box and what popped up at the top of the natural results other than the new and improved Google natural results listing with our landing page listed among the lucky 8 site links.

At first I was elated by the thrill of the hunt that you experience after you ‘bag your prey’. That soon wore off as we tried to figure out whether this was a positive or negative development. To be honest we haven’t quite come to a 100% decision yet but so far we think of it as a positive development. The conversion rates are good so we are viewing it as another way to more generic searches to our ‘action’ page faster.

Like I said the jury is still out on this one in our minds, but I will keep tracking and report back if we figure out some other clever ways to maximize this shortcut.

What Happens When Your Paid Search Landing Page Gets “Site Linked”?
Posted by Brent Sharp at 09:10 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)
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March 21, 2008

Day 2 Locks for 2008 NCAA March Madness

posted by Tom Lustina in category: SEO Humor

Below are our Day 2 picks for the 2008 NCAA Tourney. These picks do come with a guarantee for any of the games that are predicted correctly.

Our 2008 NCAA picks are based on indexation and how well Google sees each school's site. Which school has more site links? If this is a tie, which school has its Athletic Department showing in its sitelinks? If this is a tie, which school has more pages indexed relevant to its nickname? Assuming SEO Speedwagon were an accredited university that secured a bid via a last second win in its conference tournament, we would come to the Dance with 7 sitelinks, Athletic Department not present, and 133 relevant pages.

• 1 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 2,940 pages)
BEATS
16 Mount St. Mary's University (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 37 pages), based on pages

• 8 Indiana University (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 7,930 pages)
BEATS
9 University of Arkansas (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 746 pages), based on AD presence

• 6 University of Oklahoma (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 1,390 pages)
LOSES TO
11 Saint Joseph's University (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 526 pages), based on AD presence.

• 3 University of Louisville (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 289 pages)
LOSES TO
14 Boise State University (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 742 pages), based on pages.

• 7 Butler University (7 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 479 pages)
LOSES TO
10 University of South Alabama (8 sitelinks, and 43 pages), based on sitelinks.

• 2 University of Tennessee (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 4,650 pages)
BEATS
15 American University (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 2,620 pages), based on AD presence.

• 5 Clemson University (7 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 1,190 pages)
LOSES TO
12 Villanova University (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 167 pages), based on sitelinks.

• 4 Vanderbilt University (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 3,470 pages)
BEATS
13 Siena College (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 62 pages), based on pages.

• 7 Gonzaga University (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 928 pages)
BEATS
10 Davidson College (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 7,330 pages), based on AD presence.

• 2 Georgetown University (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 728 pages)
LOSES TO
15 University of Maryland, Baltimore County (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 991 pages), based on pages.

• 1 University of Memphis (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 606 pages)
LOSES TO
16 University of Texas at Arlington (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 3,480 pages), based on pages.

• 8 Mississippi State University (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 948 pages)
LOSES TO
9 University of Oregon (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 10,500 pages), based on AD presence.

• 7 University of Miami (No sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 2,530 pages)
LOSES TO
10 Saint Mary's College of California (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 326 pages), based on sitelinks.
Dorky Note: The Canes win the contest for the least SEO friendly site in the tourney, easily.

• 2 University of Texas at Austin (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 1,390 pages)
BEATS
15 Austin Peay State University (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 395 pages), based on pages.
Dorky Note: This will be a much better game than most people think, as both sites are very well suited for indexation.

• 5 Drake University (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 741 pages)
BEATS
12 Western Kentucky University (7 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 566 pages), based on sitelinks.

• 4 University of Connecticut (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 867 pages)
LOSES TO
13 University of San Diego (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 460 pages), based on AD presence.

Day 2 Locks for 2008 NCAA March Madness
Posted by Tom Lustina at 10:39 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
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2008 NCAA March Madness: Bracket Really Busted!

posted by Tom Lustina in category: SEO Humor

Below are the results from Day 1 of the 2008 NCAA Tournament. The Wagon scored 100% in 62% of the games! Stay tuned for Day 2 locks.

• WRONG - 5 Notre Dame University LOSES TO 12 George Mason University based on pages.

• RIGHT - 4 Washington State University BEATS 13 Winthrop University based on AD presence.

• WRONG - 1 University of Kansas LOSES TO 16 Portland State University based on AD presence.

• RIGHT - 8 University of Nevada, Las Vegas BEATS 9 Kent State University based on AD presence.

• WRONG - 6 University of Southern California BEATS 11 Kansas State University based on sitelinks.

• RIGHT - 3 University of Wisconsin-Madison BEATS 14 California State University, Fullerton based on sitelinks.

• RIGHT - 5 Michigan State University BEATS 12 Temple University based on sitelinks.

• RIGHT - 4 University of Pittsburgh BEATS 13 Oral Roberts University based on sitelinks.

• WRONG - 6 Marquette University LOSES TO 11 University of Kentucky based on sitelinks.

• RIGHT - 3 Stanford University BEATS 14 Cornell University based on AD presence.

• RIGHT - 1 University of California, Los Angeles BEATS 16 Mississippi Valley State University based on pages.

• RIGHT - 8 Brigham Young University LOSES TO 9 Texas A&M University based on AD presence.

• RIGHT - 6 Purdue University BEATS 11 Baylor University based on AD presence.

• WRONG - 3 Xavier University LOSES TO 14 University of Georgia based on sitelinks.

• WRONG - 7 West Virginia University LOSES TO 10 University of Arizona based on pages.

• RIGHT - 2 Duke University BEATS 15 Belmont University based on AD presence.

2008 NCAA March Madness: Bracket Really Busted!
Posted by Tom Lustina at 10:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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March 20, 2008

2008 NCAA March Madness: Bracket Busted by Indexation

posted by Tom Lustina in category: SEO Humor

Last year, the Wagon boldly went where no man had gone before. We based our NCAA basketball picks purely on who had the biggest wiki. This year we are focusing on fundamentals, albeit hanging on to our size matters methodology.

Our 2008 NCAA picks are based on indexation and how well Google sees each school's site. Which school has more site links? If this is a tie, which school has its Athletic Department showing in its sitelinks? If this is a tie, which school has more pages indexed relevant to its nickname? Assuming SEO Speedwagon were an accredited university that secured a bid via a last second win in its conference tournament, we would come to the Dance with 7 sitelinks, Athletic Department not present, and 133 relevant pages.

LLLLLET'S GET READY TO . . . (Will finish the catchphrase once we receive approval from Michael Buffer)

• 5 Notre Dame University (8 sitelinks, AD not present, and 1,140 pages)
LOSES TO
12 George Mason University (8 sitelinks, AD not present, and 16,200 pages), based on pages.

• 4 Washington State University (8 sitelinks, AD Present, 2,700 pages)
BEATS
13 Winthrop University (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 819 pages), based on AD presence.

• 1 University of Kansas (8 sitelinks, AD NOT Present, and 1,800 pages)
LOSES TO
16 Portland State University (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 1,460 pages), based on AD presence.

• 8 University of Nevada, Las Vegas (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 277 pages)
BEATS
9 Kent State University (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 359 pages), based on AD presence.

• 6 University of Southern California (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 4,970 pages)
BEATS
11 Kansas State University (7 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 301 pages), based on sitelinks.
Dorky Note: USC is one of three teams playing today showing Google images for the nickname search.

• 3 University of Wisconsin-Madison (8 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 6,830 pages)
BEATS
14 California State University, Fullerton (7 sitelinks, AD Not Present, and 1,920 pages), based on sitelinks.
Dorky Notes: Wisconsin is one of three showing Google images for its nickname, and CSF is one of two showing a Google Map for its title.

• 5 Michigan State University (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 2,950 pages)
BEATS
12 Temple University (4 sitelinks, No AD Present, and 1,230 pages), based on sitelinks.

• 4 University of Pittsburgh (8 sitelinks, No AD Present, and 939 pages)
BEATS
13 Oral Roberts University (6 sitelinks, No AD Present, and 245 pages), based on sitelinks.

• 6 Marquette University (6 sitelinks, No AD present, and 113 pages)
LOSES TO
11 University of Kentucky (8 sitelinks, No AD present, and 1,760 pages), based on sitelinks.

• 3 Stanford University (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 23,200 pages)
BEATS
14 Cornell University (8 sitelinks, No AD Present, and 18,000 pages), based on AD presence.

• 1 University of California, Los Angeles (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 65,300 pages)
BEATS
16 Mississippi Valley State University (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 461 pages), based on pages.
Dorky Note: UCLA is one of two teams playing today showing a Google map for its title.

• 8 Brigham Young University (8 sitelinks, No AD Present, and 9,940 pages)
LOSES TO
9 Texas A&M University (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 6,890 pages), based on AD presence.

• 6 Purdue University (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 5,460 pages)
BEATS
11 Baylor University (8 sitelinks, No AD Present, and 15,200 pages), based on AD presence.

• 3 Xavier University (No sitelinks and 582 pages)
LOSES TO
14 University of Georgia (8 sitelinks, No AD Present, and 1350 pages), based on sitelinks.
Dorky Note: Xavier is the only school playing today not showing sitelinks for its title.

• 7 West Virginia University (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 6,580 pages)
LOSES TO
10 University of Arizona (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 26,500 pages), based on pages.
Dorky Note: WVU is one of three schools playing today to show Google Images for the nickname search.

• 2 Duke University (8 sitelinks, AD Present, and 2,170 pages)
BEATS
15 Belmont University (8 sitelinks, No AD Present, and 1,190 pages), based on AD presence.

SEO Speedwagon considers the above 2008 NCAA picks to be locks. Therefore, we are only responsible for profits associated with said picks. Any losses can and will be attributed to operator error.

2008 NCAA March Madness: Bracket Busted by Indexation
Posted by Tom Lustina at 09:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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March 19, 2008

Consumers Spread the Brand Gospel

posted by Lisa Santora in category: Social Media

Introducing brands today is much the same as it has always been: Advertisers give people what they want. People want to talk about their brand experiences, and share and compare their experiences with peers. This desire has given birth to myriad branded social networks, such as the new PepsiUniverse, the Toyota Hybrid Community and Adidas Teamsugar.

Consumer generated brand buzz is an extension of what people do naturally: Tell stories to their friends. They trust their friends and like-minded peers to help them make buying decisions. The difference is with the Internet we create a huge content repository that we can access with a click. So while Uncle George may not welcome a call from me at 2:00 a.m. asking what he thinks of his new Toyota hybrid, I can read his review online whenever I want. And I can add my experiences to any number of online stories (consumer reviews).

An April 2007 Nielsen Global Survey identified word of mouth as the most influential selling tool. The twice-a-year survey that polls 26,486 Internet users from around the globe found that 78% of respondents trusted consumer recommendations over all other mediums that influenced purchasing decisions. 61% said that they were most influenced by consumer opinions posted online, while 60% were most influenced by brand websites.

Recently Pepsi introduced its new Tava flavored and vitamin-filled sparkling beverages by creating a brand-focused site, placing banner ads, and giving away the drink to various people in its target demographic (35-49 year olds). The idea is that they will cultivate "brand ambassadors" that sing the praises of the trendy drinks.

Immersing customers in your brand is here to stay - customers are the new brand builders. There's a certain amount of comfort and trust, and maybe egoism in being able to share stories with others. I mean, who wouldn't want to have a Tide Virtual Escape Experience and be the envy of their friends?

Consumers Spread the Brand Gospel
Posted by Lisa Santora at 04:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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March 17, 2008

Google Adwords Cross Campaign GEO Targeting

posted by Charles Nevery in category: Adwords

One of the major mistakes that Google Adwords advertisers can make with their campaign setup is in-effective GEO targeting. If a company is GEO targeting multiple regions such as Europe, Asia, Canada and North America all under one campaign the following capabilities are hindered by lack of campaign separation –

• Budget allocation by region
• Keyword productivity by region
• Cost per conversion by region
• Day Parting by region

So ultimately when there is one campaign set up that is targeting multiple areas, there is no way to segment what budget is applied to keywords by region. Also it is important to separate campaigns by regions because you can distinguish which regions convert better for a lower cost, and you can also segment out were the volume is and where the quality conversions are coming from.

Lastly, you can effectively set up day parting to make sure that your ads are showing at the appropriate time, by time zone, to target your prospective audience.

To give you an idea of what I’m referring to, here is a structural example of a campaign that is targeting all regions.
Incorrect Structure for GEO Targeting -

Campaign #1 – Dell Laptops – GEO Targeting (USA and Europe)
Adgroup #1 – Dell 17”
Adgroup #2 – Dell 20”
Adgroup #3 – Dell Sales”
Adgroup #4 – Accessories”

To take advantage of all of the benefits of GEO Targeting it is now broken down into multiple regions with single geographical targets.

Correct Structure broken down by region –

Campaign #1 – Dell Laptops – GEO Targeting (USA)
Adgroup #1 – Dell 17”
Adgroup #2 – Dell 20”
Adgroup #3 – Dell Sales

Campaign #2 – Dell Laptops – GEO Targeting (Europe)
Adgroup #1 – Dell 17”
Adgroup #2 – Dell 20”
Adgroup #3 – Dell Sales”

Google Adwords Cross Campaign GEO Targeting
Posted by Charles Nevery at 04:23 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
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March 13, 2008

Google Showing Robots-Excluded Links in Sitelinks

posted by Erik Dafforn in category: Google

You might have noticed that Google rolled out sitelinks for a new batch of sites a couple weeks ago. This blog was included in that batch, as you can see if you do a query for [seo speedwagon].

The goal here isn't to beat up on Google, but I think it's significant enough that site owners should be aware of it. In a couple cases, the sitelinks that Google shows (or showed) for our site have been links specifically excluded from robots, either via robots.txt or by the "noindex" attribute in the robots Meta tag. Following is a screen shot of the [seo speedwagon] query taken on February 26, which is roughly when the new batch of sites started noticing their sitelinks:

Note the two red-outlined links. The one in the left column, ip login, is our staff login page. It's been excluded by our robots.txt file for almost three years. Coincidentally, Google couldn't index that page if it wanted to, as it's password-protected. I know that robots.txt exclusion isn't a totally reliable way to keep a URL from showing up in SERPs, as it often causes what's known as a "partially-indexed" URL (example). But come on -- a Sitelink?

The outlined link in the right column (November 2007) is a typical (if capriciously chosen) monthly archive page -- exactly the kind you see in the third column of this blog. They're ugly, more or less useless (both for SEO and for people), and I'll probably eventually do away with them, but for now, there they are. But the important thing here is that I added the robots "noindex" tag to them well over a year ago.

Just this week, Google changed the format slightly. Here's a current shot:

The November 2007 link (excluded via Meta tag) is now off the list (automatically -- I didn't do it), but the ip login link remains.

Yes, I know I could block specific sitelinks from within Webmaster Tools. And I might, but I wanted to show it to you first.

It seems like excluding specific URLs via robots.txt or via the robots meta tag should be a sufficient method of opting URLs out of sitelinks.

This topic is especially timely as Matt Cutts just recently asked users how they'd prefer that a meta-tag-excluded URL appear -- if at all -- in the Google index. As of this writing, 83% say "Don't show a link at all." I don't want to speak for his readership, let alone all site owners, but I can confidently predict that most people don't want a robots-excluded URL (regardless of whether the exclusion mechanism was robots.txt or a robots "noindex" Meta tag) showing up in a Sitelink.

Google Showing Robots-Excluded Links in Sitelinks
Posted by Erik Dafforn at 10:33 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
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March 12, 2008

At the NYT, Suddenly It's All You Can Eat

posted by Lisa Santora in category: Old Media

New York Times CEO Janet Robinson said yesterday that "In this era, no media company can afford to be an island," referencing the NYT's commitment to prioritizing its online growth. Ms. Robinson pointed to the 50 blogs the Times has started this year. To be honest the NYT already offers a treasure trove of information, interactive content and personalization tools. After walling off the good stuff for so long, now they want to give us more...fantastic!

Hey I admit I am a Times junkie, and when the Berlin Wall toppled a while back at the NYT I jumped in with both feet. Check out some of the cool stuff they offer:

1) Times Reader. Times Reader is a Windows XP and Vista compatible software application that provides an intuitive and enjoyable (no scrolling necessary!) reading experience. It automatically adjusts the articles to fit your computer screen. You can change the font size, and save, print, annotate and email articles. It works off-line or you can sync it to get the latest news. It costs $14.95 per month or $169.00 per year, or you can get it free with your NYT newspaper subscription. Which leads me to my next point...

2) NYT Large Print Weekly. I am both near-sighted and short on time, and by subscribing to this great little paper, I got the Times Reader for free. The Large Print Weekly reprints the top news for the week and is a super fast read. Grab this for only $1.65 per week surface mail or $3.30 per week priority mail.

3) NYT Podcasts. The NYT online has a podcast for most any interest. Try their Science podcasts or their OpCast featuring discussions with the Times' Op-Ed contributors.

4) NYT Blogs. News, Sports, Trends, the NYT has it all but if you're into tech, try Pogue's Posts where Dave Pogue can often be found making fun of tech support people.

5) The NYT on your phone. If you think the Times loads fast on your computer, you'll love how quick it loads on your web-enabled phone. With the NCAA tournament coming up and NFL free agency in full swing, the mobile Times is a must-have.

Another NYT tip: Interaction is in. If leaving article comments is old hat for you, try corresponding with the Times' writers about their articles. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how rapidly you'll get a personal response.

At the NYT, Suddenly It's All You Can Eat
Posted by Lisa Santora at 04:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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