SEO Tuts

Earlier today, we brought you news of Google’s new media measurement tool. The official announcement has been published on the Inside Adwords blog. The new tool will be called Ad Planner (yes, there is a space between the two words), and is in a private, invitation-only beta. You can request an invitation, if you’re interested.

Ad Planner was developed for media planners in the hopes of creating a better connection between advertisers and publishers. Here’s how it works: Media planners enter their target audience demographics as well as sites that their audience already visits. Ad Planner will use the data to determine what other sites the target audience is visiting. The list of sites will include those on and off the Google Content Network.

The data can then be used to create plans, which can be exported via CSV. You can also export data to DoubleClick’s MediaVisor, another media planning platform. Google completed its acquisition of DoubleClick earlier this year.

Here’s what the Ad Planner platform will look like:

What do you think of Ad Planner? Will you request an invitation? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Search engines are the preferred method of researching a product they’re considering purchasing, according to data released by Opinion Research Corporation. 63% of those surveyed say they consult online news, blogs, and consumer feedback before making a purchase. And if you’ve been tempted to abandon organic based on the “SEO is dead” debate, you may want to think again:

• 70% go online to find information on brands, especially for travel, leisure, and recreation
• 83% say online reviews had at least some level of influence in their buying decision

“Businesses today exist in an era in which it’s nearly impossible to escape the likelihood of being evaluated…there’s nowhere to hide,” said Linda Shea, SVP and Global Managing Director of Customer Strategies for Opinion Research Corporation. “Companies must be extremely mindful of the power of proliferating online forums and their ability to shape consumer’s perceptions about brands. Even a single negative review, when posted in a very public forum, can have a significant impact on a prospective buyer’s decision to purchase.”

So when does the internet first enter the decision-making process?

• 38% use the internet from the start
• 27% go online when trying to decide between 2-3 options
• 21% are at the narrowing-down phase

And here’s what’s being researched, along with the percentage of those surveyed who go online to research the various categories:

• Travel/Recreation/Leisure 82%
• Electronic goods 80%
• Household products/services 66%
• Clothing 55%
• Automotive 55%
• Personal care 40%
• Food 24%

What do you think of these numbers? Does it affect your view of how important SEO is? Give your thoughts in the comments.

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Google’s Conversion Optimizer was released in January and was designed to streamline the AdWords bidding process. Now, Google has announced that the tool is supported by AdWords Editor and Adwords API.

In order to use Conversion Optimizer, you must have AdWords Conversion Tracking enabled and have accrued 200 conversions over the past 30 days. Conversion Optimizer uses several factors to determine an optimal CPC bid based on the maximum CPA set by the user. Factors include broad matching, content network or search partner site where an ad is displayed, and where the user is located.

Writing on the Inside AdWords blog, Trevor Claiborne explained, “The keyword “flowers” may have a 2% conversion rate while the keyword ‘roses delivery’ may have a 7% conversion rate. That doesn’t mean that you don’t want any clicks on ‘flowers,’ but you probably wouldn’t want to spend as much on that keyword as you might be willing to spend for clicks on ‘roses delivery’ The Conversion Optimizer uses information like this to adjust your bids based on how valuable each click is for you.”

What do you think about Conversion Optimizer being supported by AdWords Editor and API? Let us know in the comments.

Yahoo! has licensed Urban Mapping’s Urbanware: Neighborhoods, which contains data for 40,000 neighborhood boundaries covering more than 2,000 U.S. cities and towns. The agreement will help Yahoo provide geographically-targeted results based on actual search behavior.

“Urban Mapping’s neighborhood boundary information helps us offer our users access to more complete and relevant content,” said Bob Upham, Director of Business Development for Yahoo! Geo Technologies. “Allowing users to search by neighborhood yields more appropriate results, adding value and relevancy to the overall experience.”

Ian White, Urban Mapping CEO. “Yahoo! clearly sees the value and benefits of delivering neighborhood-based information to their community of users, advertisers, publishers and developers.”

The license is expected to help Yahoo provide improved results in local search, mobile search, yellow pages, maps, and real estate among other applications.

Google is planning to launch a media planning tool which will aid advertisers in targeting audiences, according to published reports. The tool will be free and feature audience measurement data. While geared specifically towards advertisers, though web publishers will have access as well.

Additionally, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that a separate tool will be launched to show how web users respond to online ads.

Audience measurement is already an established field with players such as comScore, Hitwise and Nielsen. Though, comScore did come under fire earlier this year for their measurements of search advertising, which Wall Street used to devalue Google, which ended up posting strong first quarter results.

And as we reported yesterday, Google is taking on sites like Compete and Alexa by offering a new website comparison tool as part of its Trends product.

We expect to have more details about the new media measurement tool when the official announcement is made later today.

Google is the world leader among search engines and even Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has conceded Google’s won the search game.

But most people don’t think of Google as an offline information service - until they try GOOG 411. Canadians now have their chance to experience GOOG 411. Not French Canadians, though. Google has launched GOOG 411 in the Canadian market only in English.

Canadians can dial 1-800-GOOG-411 to connect to a computer that’s armed with voice recognition software software.

The automated voice will ask for city and province. A voice menu will assist users by finding the information they’re looking for.

Users can ask for directions to a business or location, phone numbers, or receive a voice spoken text message about the business or restaurant that they’re researching.

USA Today recently asked Google’s Matt Cutts for tips to help sites rank in their search engine. Cutts offered up 5 tips plus a word of advice in implementing the tips. Here they are:

1. Spotlight your search term on the page. If you want to be found for your keyword, make sure that term is on the page you want to rank. The term should be at the top as well as peppered throughout your copy.
2. Fill in your “tags.” The two most important tags are Title and Description b/c that’s what is displayed on the search results.
3. Get other sites to “link” back to you. This is one of the most important of the 100 factors Google considers when ranking sites
4. Create a blog and post often. This can help you get links.
5. Register for free tools. Cutts recommends using the tools at google.com/webmaster, as well as creating a text-based sitemap www.xml-sitemaps.com, and adding your business to Google’s Local Business center (google.com/local/add)

And that word of advice? Don’t overdo it. In other words, don’t stuff your pages full of keywords.

What do you think of Cutts’ advice? Leave a comment!

Russia’s most popular search engine has officially announced plans to open a labs office in Silicon Valley. This news began to leak last week with the departure of Yahoo SVP and General Manager of Search, Vishal Makhijani. Makhijani will be President of Yandex Labs in the Bay Area, and will report directly to the CEO of Yandex.

Yandex says it sees about 1 billion searches per month. Last month, Google saw 6.8 billion searches, while Yahoo saw 2.2 billion, according to comScore. Yandex came in third in European search market share data for the month of March.

“We did not hesitate to go the extra mile to find this rare talent,” said Arkady Volozh, CEO of Yandex, the parent company. “We are excited to add a leading technology and business veteran in Silicon Valley to the Yandex team. Vish and his group at Yandex Labs will help to extend and improve Yandex’s core technology capabilities including the quality of algorithmic search for the Russian audience.”

What do you think of Mr. Makhijani’s move to Yandex? Let us know in the comments.

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