Seth Godin recently posted a video that shows the results of an eye tracking experiment on Squidoo.com. The video (below) is worth a watch because it really shows how people scan and hunt around a webpage.
Check it out (if the video is taking forever to show, go here)…
Next time you are designing a webpage, remember this video. Make it a goal to create a page that helps people figure out what your site does and guides them to do what you want them to do.
The more confusing your page, the less of a chance you are going to sell something. And yes, Im talking to the owners of all of those insurance-mortgage-weight loss-pharmaceutical-flower-dating sites.
If you dont focus, how do you expect your visitors to?
While not directly affiliate marketing related, a juicy tidbit has just come down from an appeals court involving Apple, Inc and bloggers. If you do not remember, a blog which keeps up with the latest Apple rumors was sued by Apple for leaking information on a new product. Apple won a ruling which forced the site owner to turn over the name(s) of the actual blogger who leaked the information. Apple argued bloggers do NOT enjoy the same legal protections as other online journalists. However, an appeals court as slapped down the earlier ruling enforcing the fact that bloggers do in fact enjoy the same protections as other online journalists. This, for me, is a welcomed ruling.
I looked at a post over at Threadwatch this morning called “MSN Search Now Offering More Spam Per Query” and it got me looking at MSN results. How shocked was I when I saw that queries for “auto insurance,” “health insurance,” and the like were generally spam free!
It seems that on the 25th MSN accidentally let 100 million pages into the MSN index without being filtered, which totally destroyed their search results. It took MSNs people until the early in the morning on the 27th to get everything fixed up, but now things actually look good at MSN (at least in the insurance vertical). Kinda freaky.
Who knows if this will last. I keep thinking I am dreaming over here. Could MSN really have cleaned up their spam problems?
To see the comment from the MSN rep at Webmasterworld, go here. And if you are searching around on MSN, let me know how you think things look.
In December Google announced that they would be using a new spider (AdsBot) to crawl the landing pages advertisers send traffic to through their Google AdWords account. The general idea is that Google will look at landing page as yet another factor in their ad serving algorithm (quality score).
Since it was announced in December, I figured Google was already looking at advertisers landing pages; but a new alert is appearing in advertisers Google accounts that asks them to accept new terms and condition. In the new terms and conditions was mention of the use of landing pages in the quality score of AdWords ads.
So what does this all mean to you as an AdWords advertiser?
It is now more important than ever to create targeted landing pages on your website that reflect the keywords you are bidding on. This is certainly something that the most successful PPC practitioners have been doing for years, but now they will actually get rewarded for doing it by Google (not just rewarded with higher conversion).
You do have the option to disallow the AdsBot from spidering your landing pages, but if you do you will get a lower quality score, meaning less exposure on AdWords.
If you are currently sending all of your AdWords traffic to one or two landing pages, and those landing pages dont appear to be relevant to your keywords, be prepared to take a hit on your quality score. Ouch. This long weekend may be a good time to start strategizing on how you can create keyword appropriate landing pages for your AdWords accounts.
If you are looking for some light reading on AdsBot and how all if this is going to work, here are some helpful links:
Looks like Yahoo and eBay are teaming up against rivals Google and MSN. Yahoo will gain exclusivity for serving up graphic ads with payment going thru PayPal. Yahoo search features will be integrated with the eBay bar, etc and other equally useful, errr, things.
Ok, so I am the first to admit that I have had a few good laughs at the expense of Bruce Clay the SEO guy. The thing is, anyone who goes around a conferences with a group of 10 people dressed in similar outfits is going to get my attention and most likely a chuckle.
So my saying has always been “Bruce Clay Has a Posse” after Shepard Faireys “Andre the Giant Has a Posse” art project - which is where I stole the inspiration for the picture to the left.
There is one thing I do have to say though - Bruce Clay knows SEO. The guy is very well respected and from what I have heard he is a pretty ethical SEO as well - which seems to be a rare breed.
Much to my delight my delight Bruce is making his posse blog - and the posts are pretty darn good. Lots of good industry information and opinion.
So take some time and check it out - I would say add it to your feed reader, but I cant find an RSS feed from the blog. Baby steps Bruce, baby steps.
[UPDATE! Thanks to SEO by the Sea for pointing me to a cleaner link that does offer RSS feeds from the Bruce Clay blog. Good stuff!]
Most of you who are AdWords advertisers have received an email from an outfit called Clicksettlement that talks about the class action click fraud settlement in the case of Lane Gifts v. Google.
Now the last thing I am going to do is tell you to settle or not settle. I am really not qualified to do that for you. Instead I thought I would put up some links to resources and opinions on this matter. So without any further ado…
From scanning the blogosphere it looks like many people though the ClickSettlement email was spam or some new kind of phishing. From the Inside Adwords post it looks like it is the real deal.
So, fair affiliates, are you planning on settling?
[Thanks to Mastermind Mike for the post idea and the Consumerist for the image]
The Google AdWords team has just announced that they will be rolling out their new “click-to-play” video ads on the AdWords network. See the details here.
It looks like the ads will be placed in the content network and advertisers will be able to target based on web site, keywords and geo location. You also have the opportunity of running the ads on a CPC or CPM basis.
Interestingly, the ads wont run until the user initiates it - so people wont be bombarded by unwanted videos with long load times.
Make sure you look at the example video ad for flowers on the Inside Adwords site. It is, um, different.
CNET sums up new ComScore data that shows that Googles market share continues to grow - while most of its competitors market share is on the decline.
Here is a bulleted summary of the data (based on home, work and university Internet users:
Googles market share climbs from 42.7 percent in April 2005 to 43.1 percent in April 2006
Yahoo!s market share decreased from 30.7 percent in April 2005 to 28 percent in April 2006
MSN is down from 16.1 percent in April 2005 to 12.9 percent in April 2006 (ouch)
AOL Search is down as well from 9 percent in April 2005 to 6.9 percent in April 2006
Ask.com is falling too, from 6.1 percent in April 2005 to 5.8 percent in April 2006
Moral of the story, Google is kicking butt. And the funny part is this - how many Google ads have you see lately? Actually, how many Google ads have you seen EVER?
I think every blogger who has even a little bit of traffic can agree with me here - ENOUGH WITH THE BLOG SPAM BOTS.
I got an email the other day from a fairly well know black hat SEO requesting that we stop one of our affiliates from blog spamming. It seems that the level of spam comments that the SEO was receiving was killing his blog servers.
We of course were happy to oblige in getting the blog spammer to stop.
Let me just say this, as a company who blogs, we ask that you do not use blog spamming as a tool to increase your rankings in the search engines. We ask this for two reasons:
Blog spamming is poor form and is really disruptive to people and companies who take the time to blog
BLOG SPAMMING DOES NOT WORK BECAUSE ALMOST EVERY BLOG USES THE REL=”NOFOLLOW” TAG
I mean, seriously. If you are smart enough to make a bot, you should be smart enough to know you are making a pointless bot.
Since all of these links have rel=”nofollow” you get no juice from any of the major search engines. So the time you have spent building the comments is truly wasted. If you are out there black-hatting, please spend your time on something more worthwhile - like cloaking or something
Get more information on the rel=”nofollow” tag here.
[Note: InsureMe does not promote any black hat SEO tricks. We think that the best way to optimize your site is to simply develop a web site, allow it to build a natural online community, create great content, and then sit back and wait a few years for Google to rank you appropriately. Have a nice weekend]
So, another week and Google is being “re-sued” again. This time is a re-file of a previous suit for Googles toolbar suggest feature pointing users to pirated software.
This time I will offer my opinion. I do not believe it is right to sue for what amounts to personal responsibility of a user. Software makers are being sued left and right for MISUSE of their software. As a developer, this bothers me.
So, you think you know something about Google eh? Yeah well, the search engine roads are littered with the bodies of others who said yes. Dont lose hope though, Gwigle is here to measure your knowledge so you dont get freaked out at the next frat-house party losing the all important trivial pursuit game and girl/guy to the house geek.
I spotted an interesting post over at Search Engine Watch that discusses a recent Patent filed by Ask.com that discusses possible uses for their much hyped “binoculars” feature.
Check out the post for a full rundown on the patent, but what I find most interesting is that some people are speculating that a searchers interaction with the binoculars could be used to rank sites.
If that ever does happen, I wonder how fast SEOs would build binocular bots to hover and click on their listings.
And if you are suffering from insomnia, please feel free to review the actual Ask.com patent, courtesy of the US Patent Office.
Looks like the U.S. Justice Department has decided the world will not end, as Google has suggested, if Microsoft sets the default search engine of their new IE7 product to MSN. Funny, I didnt have to do anything to make my Firefox browser automatically search Google. Hummmm.
As I said before, expect IE7 to send a lot of traffic, right off the bat, to MSN.
Snap.com is back in the news with a new release of their search product. If you do not remember Bill Gross is behind Snap and was one of the orignal dudes behind Overture/GoTo and others. They have removed the distinction between paid and natural search results. Hummmmm.
Looks like all those Tivo and Tivo like machines (DVRs - Digital Video Recorders) out there will be resulting in bucks n-yo-pocket. Advertisers are now using DVR data to demand lower ad prices and are diverting more money into other forms of advertising - read Internet, etc. Seems they dont want to pay as much for recorded commercials as most folks just blast thru them. This my friends is the market at work. Of course, traditional media powerhouses are resisting as they are huge, big-foot sized machines which hate change.
So, go forth and encourage Tivo purchases. Read about it here.
While not specifically affiliate news, it is news worthy.
Apple has released their new PowerBook based on the Intel Duo-Core processor. Apple says it is about 5x faster than the G4 PowerBook it relaces. If you are like me and use a Mac at home (an iMac), this is good news as Ive always wanted a PowerBook but was unwilling to pay the big buck-a-roos for such a slow machine (the G4 is slow). Now there is a reason to cough up the dollahs. Additionally, because Apples Operating System is now based on Intel processors you can boot Mac or Windoze on the same machine. Dude, that is cool.
If you are having a slow day out there in Affiliateville, or if you are just getting sick of building links to your site, you should take a few and do the SEO Crossword Puzzle.
Oh yeah, because they are a financial powerhouse, thats why. But is imitation the highest form of flattery, or is it just a great way to make sure Google will keep kicking everyones butt in the future?
These is the interesting question Derek Powazek (the fella who designed Technoratis current interface) asks in a recent article “What Would Google Do?”
The article focuses on Google “anti-design” design and all of the companies out there trying to copy the “search box, logo, submit button” Google interface. Derek points out that by doing the same thing as Google, companies like Ask.com will remain in Googles wake.
Stepping outside of site design, I think a lot can be said about companies in the search space trying to copy Google.
Lead volume seems a little soft today, which strengthens my hypothesis. You probably already have this figured out - so please just humor me.
InsureMe hits and lead volume appears to be strongly correlated with the weather. Per weather.com, the entire country, save a little rain in the Midwest, is having a beautiful day. When the weather is nice insurance shopping seems to slow down. Does anyone else see this correlation?
I ran across this New York Times article that discusses the looming war between Microsoft and Google. It seems that Microsoft is not a fan of being behind, but as the article points out, Microsoft has started from behind before, and came forward to clobber its rivals.
One warning though, the article is a bit meandering at times, so if you are sleepy, you might want to skip it.
On a somewhat related note, I had the opportunity to talk with a Forrester analyist yesterday named Shar VanBoskirk. Shar was pretty knowledgeable when it came to high level search industry information, so it was interesting to hear her take on the online marketing world.
When I asked her about the rumors of Microsoft potentially buying up a chunk of Yahoo!, she just laughed. Seems Shar is not so impressed with the potential synergy between the two companies.
Not sure if I totally agree with her, but it was interesting to see how unlikely she perceived the transaction to be.
UPDATE! - It looks like Shar took some time to post her thoughts on the Microsoft/Yahoo! rumors over at the Forrester Marketing Blog. Thanks for the clarification Shar!
I am back from a short vacation and ready to post again! Thanks to James Harvey for keeping the blog active and relevant - you da man!
I was out trolling for information today and I found a great discussion on the use of meta tags for SEO.
Now all of you old school SEOers might remember a day when meta tags could make or break your rankings in the search engines. I am sure those were great days, but just in case you are out of the loop, those days are gone.
So, if you are doing SEO out of a 1995 “SEO for Dummies” book, or if you are still stuffing your meta keyword tag, I BEG you to take some time and read this discussion over at Search Engine Watch.
Oh yeah, and just so you know, there is nothing wrong with keyword stuffing a meta keyword tag - as long as you do it because of superstition and not because you think it works. Thats what I keep telling myself anyway…
I am sure each of you have already previewed, used, etc Yahoo!s new software, but I found this article an interesting commentary on it and their competitors.
So, you think I am crazy for seeing the various and sundry virtual worlds as one of the next big frontiers for advertising, eh? Well, take a look at this lawsuit about a virtual land deal gone bad. Yes, a virtual land deal.
Getting tired of seeing the message “We have not received your W9 Form!”? You can quickly solve this problem and ensure prompt payment by faxing your completed W9 to InsureMe at 303-741-6670.
The W9 form is located in your InsureMe account. Simply click “My Account” on your toolbar and then “Edit Payment Instructions”. The W9 form is attached in a pdf file at the bottom of the page.
You can also mail the form to InsureMe:
InsureMe
9800 South Meridian Blvd, Ste 400
Englewood, CO 80112
Once we receive your completed W9, we will remove the message from your account. Thank you for your assistance in this area.
Im new to the PPC game. In fact, five months ago I didnt have the least idea how pay-per-click advertising really worked, let alone how to make money at it. But when you get tossed into the proverbial water and you dont want to sink, you learn to swim—and really quickly!
At the beginning of the year, our affiliate team manager asked each member of the team to take a stab at PPC. Having never done any search engine advertising, I was pretty clueless…OK, I was totally clueless. But once I decided to dig my heels in and do my best—no matter what the outcome—I learned a lot in a relatively short period of time. I just had to open my mind, experiment a lot, and take my successes and failures in stride. (And that was much easier to say than do, believe me!)
Being a writer by profession, numbers are much more of a struggle for me than words. So even though I didnt really understand the numbers involved in PPC (impressions, conversions, bidding, etc.), I decided to focus on what I did know how to do: write good copy.
To my amazement, that was half the battle, and scored our team and the company some big wins as I learned the numbers part. Funny thing is, now Im learning to strategize, and with some help from those who are good at the numbers game, I now have a much better grasp of the whole picture—and that makes my supervisor very happy!
A new study finds four in ten Americans play video games. Now all the recent hub-bub about big players buying companies specializing in virtual world (technical speak for video game) advertising makes sense. I would also wager as the gamer generation starts spending their own money verses their parents, they wont stop playing video games. This will be a great new frontier for generating referral money.
And you thought Google didnt think out of the box. Silly you! In the near future when that old sciatic starts acting up … from an old college injury of course and not just because you are older than dirt … you can go to Google and be reassured you do not have some mutant form of a muscle eating virus. Yes, Google Health is on the way.
Yes, I have been hyping Microsoft and MSN search lately … but there is a reason; money. No matter what you might think, Microsoft has more of it than just about anybody. Guess what they are doing with $1 Billion of it THIS year? Pouring it into R&D at MSN … just MSN.
This time it is for porn being an “obscenely profitable and integral part of its business”. I will not comment this time as I do not know if the allegation is true. You decide.
Some interesting going ons with Googles index. It appears they may be doing a little trimming of their indexed pages. Some say spam (i.e. spam on blogs, etc) is the cause and Google is choking on it.
This article goes into it a bit deeper with links to blogs where the crawler, or more accurately the absence of it, is being discussed.
I love this quote from the article, “Now size, it seems, doesnt matter.”
Well, there are stranger companions but this is Bills latest stance on MSN and Google. Bill says “we will keep Google honest”. Hummm, there is a lot wrapped up in that statement if you think about it.
Ok, so I am the first to admit that I have had a few good laughs at the expense of Bruce Clay the SEO guy. The thing is, anyone who goes around a conferences with a group of 10 people dressed in similar outfits is going to get my attention and most likely a chuckle.
Most of you who are AdWords advertisers have received an email from an outfit called Clicksettlement that talks about the class action click fraud settlement in the case of Lane Gifts v. Google.
The Google AdWords team has just announced that they will be rolling out their new “click-to-play” video ads on the AdWords network. See the details 
I spotted an interesting post over at Search Engine Watch that discusses a recent Patent filed by Ask.com that discusses possible uses for their much hyped “binoculars” feature.
