Tag Archive for: search marketing

Search Engine Market Share Stats

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I get asked on a regular basis “How much of the search engine traffic comes from Google as compared to the others?” Well, the first point is that the traffic to a particular site varies depending on its audience and its keyword positions at various search engines. For example, my ComBridges.com site gets a higher percentage of its traffic than what’s shown here from Google, while my MediaMall.com site gets less. That said, here’s a chart from a eMarketer article comparing 2004 to 2005 searches from the “big three.” And, if you don’t pay close attention to the changes in this market, you can see that the 80-20 rule applies here with about 81% of the searches being done on what are now the three main search engines (Google, Yahoo! & MSN). The other 19% is spread across a large number of much smaller sites.

Convergence Connects with Local Search: Spot Runner

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I was talkin’ with an old media buddy about the CES show, and our sentiments were echoed in this Sunday’s “Media Frenzy” column in the NYTimes Business section, with this opening line: “Convergence is back…” In fact, it may be more accurate to say it’s finally here. And I’m talking about more than iPod video and related video sales by Google and others.

On another front, those who work in search engine marketing and search engine advertising (like Google AdWords and Yahoo Search advertising) know that local search is hot. Local businesses (from pizza parlors to car repair shops) are benefitting more from local search engine marketing than from those old fashioned and expensive yellow pages ads.
Case in point, a friend’s petsitting business is getting 9 leads from free search engine rankings compared to 1 from a $300/month yellow pages display ad that she’s just discontinued. For those who want to learn more, this is the best e-book I’ve seen on the subject of Local Search. >

What was most kewl in the article referenced above, IMHO, was Spot Runner. This web-based application (“software as service”) uses pre-produced TV spot “templates” and computerized insertion techniques to help small local businesses get on cable TV as painlessly and inexpensively as possible. Impressive stuff. And there’s an opportunity there for video producers as well. At least I think so. I need to get into that service in more detail. Comments and experiences welcome…

Search is a 2-Way Street: “Google Base” Breaks Posting Barrier

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I know it’s starting to look like I’m a bit obsessed with Google. Maybe so. But, I also think that I know a true innovator when I see one. This time I salute Google for creating a new kind of interactivity via Google Base. This new service enables anyone (meaning folks without the slightest technical ability) to publish content, from recipes to want ads, you name it, for free. And, of course, because they are Google, they are making all of this new, easy-to-post content searchable, or as they describe it, Google Base is “a place where you can add all types of information that we’ll host and make searchable online.” Thus, now, anyone anywhere can add content to the global information database without needing to know how to post to a blog or how to build a web page. With user-friendly categories and more users, this new “channel” could become quite powerful. As this analysis agrees, look out Craig’s List, Amazon and EBay… Stay tuned…

Another Google Disruption: Free Site Statistics

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A visit to one of the top website traffic statistic packages, Urchin and urchin.com, now delivers this logo, “Google Analytics” and an auto-forward to http://www.google.com/analytics/. Further, to make their acquisition of Urchin even more disruptive, Google is now offering this top package (which we use at ComBridges) for that magic Internet four-letter word: FREE.

Read the Information Week story, “Google Offers Web Analytics for Free”

Warner Brothers Diggin’ Digital for Development of Music Talent

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Before I could even draft my post about major “disruptive” technologies, a major record company announced its new initiative to “validate” talent via Internet marketing. You gotta love that it’s a psychedelic relic, Jac Holzman, who’s master-minding this effort. Doesn’t it make you think twice when one of the big boys is ” trying to use the Internet to produce and distribute music in ways that circumvent the usual channels…” ?

To quote Holzman from the Washington Post, “‘Physical product has its place in the world,’ but using the Internet is a faster and cheaper way of searching for and validating talent, said Holzman, a longtime proponent of independent music who made it big by signing the Doors on the Elektra music label in 1966.” Maybe these old guys will finally “get it” after all. 😉

Washington Post: Warner Music Turns to Web

Google’s Great is the Greatness of Change

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An Addendum to my post below… The greatness of Google’s accomplishments are in way they are re-inventing media and advertising. “Changing the way… ” as quoted here: “They’ve come up with a new product that is changing the way people are advertising,” said ThinkEquity analyst John Tinker. “They are changing the way people are doing business.” Source: Reuters: “Google’s ‘sea-change’ sets stock sailing”

Google the Great Gets Greater

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Sure. I know that you don’t measure the true value of a company by it’s market cap. And, of course, I know that profits aren’t everything. But, a 7x increase in net earnings ain’t bad. And, you better believe that pay-per-click search engine advertising is MAJOR (even though, full disclosure, it’s part of my business. Managing Google AdWords campaigns is one of the services we offer.)

Just the same, Google’s latest earnings report is beyond impressive. So is their 45% search engine market share. (So is the fact that “Google” has become a verb.) So is the perspective of the book I’m reading, The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture.

It seems that Google in particular, and search in general, along with the financial fuel of search engine advertising are literally defining the next waves of e-business and e-experience, as well as what’s coming in every web surfer’s next “set” of waves… Stay tuned.

Googlers Gripe Upon Getting Googled

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This irony is lost somewhere between “Do what I say, not what I do” and “Do unto others…” It seems that CNET News Googled Google CEO Eric Schmidt and then printed some of what it found. The result? Not praise for creativity, but a promised year of silent shoulder, black out, personna non gratis, “we’re not talking to you anymore” pissy, reactionary, angry, downright un-Google-like behavior. Go figure. Here’s one journal’s rendition of the story.

Get Links to Improve Search Engine Rankings

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As most e-marketers know, getting good links TO your web site is now a critical component of achieving web traffic generating search engine positions for the strategic keywords that you (hopefully) have indentified for the benefit of your business or organization.

Today, I’m recommending Marketing Sherpa as one of my favorite “must read” email newsletters on e-marketing; and, in particular, an article on the do’s and don’ts of link acquisition, and interview with link expert Eric Ward titled How to (Really) Gain Link Popularity: 5 Mistakes & 3 Proven Tactics. (Note this article is only free til May 6th.)

Note: One of the most useful links sited is http://www.incominglinks.com which offers almost 600 niche topic directories from whom you may be able to get valuable links as well as some good how-to instructions. Good luck!

For more about ComBridges’ web site promotion strategies, please click here.

Finally, a Directory of Local Search Directories

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I love good aggregations of content. As mentioned recently, yellow page style directories are becoming increasingly important for businesses that wish to target local searches, in other words, geographically-targeted searches to find a business of a particular type in your area. Now there’s something called the Yellow Pages Association (YPA) and they’ve published an online directory of local search engines. Useful stuff if you need that kind of thing. Here’s the link to the directory of localized directories. Enjoy.