For the past three years my parents have asked me what I want for Christmas and the answer was always the same - SXSW Gold Badge, Gold Badge, Gold Badge. I was a student then and couldn’t afford it on my own, but now that I’m gainfully employed (bless you, Apogee) I can buy my own badge this year. Fun!

However, just because I don’t need presents doesn’t mean Christmas just goes away, so again my folks issued the call for gift ideas for their decidedly geeky/crafty/quasi-pinko-hipster daughter, and I had to think of something. Not only what my folks could give me, but also how to get them a list specific enough to where my choices were unmistakable.

Being a slave to social media, I made my list this year with Delicious. The social bookmarking site scraped the very title tags from Amazon, Target and the like, making each item’s title descriptive enough to where my parents could easily find what they were looking for among the options I offered - however, some of them needed a little doctoring. For example, My Ben Folds shirt didn’t have title tags at all and selected items from the Wilco store were merely labeled “WILCO: STORE,” whereas Amazon had keyword-rich title tags, making it easy for me to remember what I linked to, and creating an opportunity for links with optimized anchor text. As items from e-commerce websites get sent around the Internet during seasons of high volume gift-giving, optimized title tags are a great way to get correctly-optimized links from a variety of sources. So label those pages carefully for holly jolly traffic even in “bah, humbug” recessions.

Merry Christmas everyone!

The year is almost done. I’ve noticed quite a number of “Best of 2008″ posts floating around the search marketing industry, along with the proverbial prediction posts: what does 2009 hold for SEM? The SEO department here at Apogee batted this question back and forth during one of our team meetings to formulate a list of answers. I’m not going to delve into the entire list right now, but instead, talk a bit about one item in particular from that list: the personalization of search and rankings.

Let’s first start with a definition of personalized search. I asked a few friends not barricaded within the ivory tower of search engine marketing if they noticed they could manipulate search results on Google when logged into one of their Google accounts, or if they noticed the “Customized based on recent search activity” text at the top right corner of their search results. The consensus answer? “No.” So, as long as there is an unaware class, I am of it. Basically, personalized search is providing search results to users based on search history, search query intent and user location, and in Google’s case, SearchWiki activity, among other signals.

Of course, increased personalized search on its own isn’t much of a bold prediction. Rather, predicting the degree to which it will infiltrate search marketing, and search engine rankings in particular, is how you grab headlines. Well, I’m not here to join the “Rankings R Dead” team or the “Personalization Won’t Matter Much” team - I know, the grey area is boring and oh so non-polarizing, but I’m not looking for true believers here. Looks like I’m not grasping at headlines.

So how will personalized search affect rankings and how will we utilize them in SEO?

Personalized search will have the most impact on those queries whose relevancy is disparately dependent on location – restaurants and the like – and queries that are not location specific will be affected minimally, but could be affected by search history.

It’s logical that users receive different search results for a query such as “thai restaurants” if one lives in Ridgecrest, CA and another lives in Bremerton, WA. Location should be one of the primary signals in determining personalized results for these queries. However, it’s illogical that users receive completely different search results for queries such as “linguistics” based on location, but logical that search history slightly effect those rankings.

If search history reveals the person searching for “linguistics” frequents websites with videos, perhaps tweaking the algorithms so that websites with videos receive a bit of a boost makes sense. Nonetheless, the overriding desire here is for relevancy. Personalization does not occur in a vacuum where other users do not exist. Looking to the collective, through linking patterns, helps provide greater relevancy than merely one user’s search patterns.

Also, I don’t think the changes will be drastic for those queries where search history can play a role in determining rankings, because Yahoo! is going to anonymize user data after 90 days, and I think Google and Microsoft will not only set a similar limit, but will be forced to do so eventually. If this plays out as predicted, search results will only be personalized to a certain extent.

Finally, how will smart SEOs utilize rankings as a metric for success?

The first example, location dependent queries, would generally fall into the local search realm. I don’t foresee a major change in this department except that local businesses will be required to seek out SEO services from their hometown agency. Rankings are not dead. They are alive, well, breathing, eating, sleeping and working for you.

For those queries potentially affected by search history, I don’t think the changes will be drastic. It seems illogical to personalize search results for the sake of personalization while detracting from relevancy. Wikipedia works so well because it looks to the collective – groups are much wiser than individuals on their own.

Will personalization force smart SEOs to adapt?

Of course. Will it potentially make tracking certain rankings harder? Yes, but harder does not mean impossible. However, proclaiming rankings dead is akin to saying search engines are dead. Search is a cornerstone of the Internet. So long as people need to find information about things they do not know, rankings will matter. So long as the search results are organized (ranked), rankings will matter because they bring exposure, traffic, leads, sales and revenue. Rankings should have always been looked at as a means to these ends.

‘Tis the season for shopping, right? Well, on this lazy weekend, I was hoping to go to one of those cute little holiday bazaars with local and handmade treasures. I actually went to one last year and wanted to check the hours and entrance fee. So, like the good little search marketer that I am, I started by opening up my laptop to find the information I needed.

The bazaar I’ve been to before has been advertised around town a bit – something like Keep Austin Bazaar (if you aren’t familiar with Austin, you may not be aware of the play on the local phrase Keep Austin Weird). I took a stab at the name and came up empty handed - the first results page included a musical instruments retailer and a Paid Search ad from Amazon. So, dead end.

Next try - sometimes I try to throw in the year of an event, figuring that it might be called the 2008 Austin Bazaar or even the 2008 Austin Holiday Bazaar. No luck. I remember that the spelling might be the other version of the word, so I try again:

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After clicking on the first result, I realize I’m not at the actual event’s website, I’m at a listing for the event on the Austin section of When.com. I finally locate the link to the official website for the event — BAM! It all becomes clear…

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A site almost entirely coded in Flash. Am I surprised? Not really. I mean, it’s a cute site. The various event attractions are skating across the sky (“jewelry,” and “art,” etc.) and there are snowflakes (a rarity in Austin) sprinkling down the screen. The navigation string of holiday ornaments is pretty easy for site visitors to understand. Note: If I had searched simply “Austin Bizarre” I would have found the site immediately – however, I’m assuming the event organizers would like to rank for as many related terms as possible.

The search engines have a limited chance of actually serving this Flash site up for searchers, even searchers like me who know exactly what they’re looking for and (at least somewhat) how to perform a search.

And now for my good deed during this holiday season…

How could the Keep Austin Bizarre Holiday Bazaar have improved their website for the search engines? Here are 4 (somewhat) easy tips to implement for next year:

1. Limit the Flash content on the site

• Earlier this year, Google made major improvements in Flash indexing on websites; however, this is still not an optimal coding language for search engines to index. In particular, links and content should not be coded in Flash. For images or widgets, Flash works very well though.
• With the current Flash coding, there is no way the list of musicians and craftsmen could be returned for a search.

Solution: Don’t put the navigation bar in Flash, or provide an additional navigation bar (coded in HTML, which is search friendly) in the footer of each page.

2. Write a descriptive title tag

• Currently, the title tag reads: “KeepAustinBizarre.” The title tag is a lightning rod for the search engines – what better way to determine what a site is about than the title of the first page? Including descriptive text here will go a long way in your search engine optimization efforts.
• Do:
  • include the date of the event
  • include the address, and other important information
  • limit the title tag to 60 characters, including spaces
• Examples:
  • Keep Austin Bizarre Holiday Bazaar – December 12 – 23, 2008
  • 2nd Annual Keep Austin Bizarre – 2008 Holiday Bazaar
  • 2008 Keep Austin Bizarre – Palmer Events Center, Local Crafts

3. Submit to Google Local

• By submitting to Google Local Business Center, this event’s Google listing could include a highlighted result and link in addition to a map pointer directly on the event’s location.
• Cory Barbot gave some guidance about Google Local submissions a few weeks ago for our blog, so be sure to check that out to learn more about local search – Local SEO Tips.

4. Launch a Paid Search Campaign

• Vivian Chang was recently interviewed on event driven paid search campaigns for the Apogee Search YouTube channel, you can watch the video here: Promoting Events with Paid Search Campaigns.

A few tweaks and some prior planning for next year (maybe beginning around mid-2009) would make this site much more search engine friendly. And hey, who doesn’t want more traffic?

At the beginning of the year, this post on the Apogee Search Marketing Blog made some predictions about search marketing in 2008. Before we try to make any predictions about 2009, let’s take a minute to review 2008’s search predictions compared to what actually occurred over the last 12 months.

Apogee’s 2008 search predictions were as follows:

1. Management tools become the cost of having a seat at the paid search table, rather than a competitive advantage. PPC management tools were certainly abundant in 2008. And, yes, they were almost necessary to a campaign’s success. Whether these tools were internal or external, focused on automated bid management, analyzing data or testing campaign variables, management tools freed up paid search managers’ time so they could focus on new opportunities, expansion and overall strategy.
2. Business/marketing acumen becomes more important to paid search management than technical prowess. While tools are great, tools just do what we tell them to do. Ultimately paid search managers have to set appropriate goals for marketers and outline the necessary steps to reach those goals. This year ad copy and landing page testing have gained popularity as marketers focus on increasing conversion rates. With new tools such as Google Website Optimizer (GWO), these tests are becoming easier to implement.
3. Search engines continue to provide better bid management functionality. Most tools vendors don’t react. Search engines have made many improvements in an effort to provide better bid management functionality in 2008, but despite all of the changes made this year, there is still a long way to go in providing reliable bid management functionality.
   • Google announced a new quality score method this year that determines CPC in “real-time,” as opposed to its tried and true static quality scores. It also allows for marketers to see first page bids rather than minimum bids.
   • AdWords Editor now allows users to download performance statistics so that analysis and adjustments can easily be made in the same interface. In addition, the newest 7.0 version, allows users to see quality scores and first page bid estimates for keywords.
   • Yahoo! now allows marketers to view average rankings when in the bid editing page.
   • MSN Live Search released a desktop beta tool that is essentially an AdWords Editor for Microsoft.

   Bid management tools are also still a bit behind the curve. While their automation saves paid search managers time by adjusting bids, they are slow to react to changes made by search engines. Adjusting bids manually within the search engine’s interface is often more complicated than just using the free tools offered by search engines. As for full blown campaign management, we’re still not seeing many tools with the ability to handle that functionality yet.

4. Google extends its lead in the paid search market, either a little or a lot, depending upon how you measure the industry. Without a doubt, Google continues to be the leader in the paid search realm. ComScore recently released that in October 2008 Google Sites held 63.1% of all searches, as compared to 58.5% in October of 2007. Google’s revenue also increased 31% from third quarter 2007 to third quarter 2008, raking in $5.54 billion in Q3 2008.As for service offerings, Google rolled out tool after tool after tool aimed at helping paid search marketers in 2008. All of these tools successfully assist marketers in optimizing and expanding their paid search campaigns, allowing for Google to maintain and grow its steady cash flow.
5. Local search continues to grow, but still has a difficult time providing substantive traffic in most markets. This year businesses flocked to Google Local Business Center. It has become “the” thing to do. As Universal Search rolled out throughout the year, local search optimization became even more visible and critical. In most industries and major cities, a business with a service that is location-specific and not on Google Local, will basically be behind by the end of this year.Furthermore, Google’s Local Business Ads (LBAs), a version of paid ads that appear mostly on Google Maps, contributed heavily to local search’s growth in 2008.
6. Google rolls Click-To-Call in with its local search service, and still no one cares. Not much word about Click-to-Call this year; still no one cares. What has gained recognition in 2008 is phone call tracking for paid search campaigns. Companies such as ClickPath, provide the ability to track calls to the keyword level.
7. Google Pay Per Action gains traction with B2C advertisers, struggles with B2B advertisers. Google launched Pay Per Action beta globally in June 2007, but phased it out in 2008, citing the DoubleClick/Performics acquisition as the reasoning.
8. Google Product Search (previously Froogle) celebrates its sixth birthday, remains in beta. Yes, Google Product Search is still in Beta. During 2008, this product caught up with other comparison shopping engines by showing groups of similar products when a search is performed. This change caught some bloggers’ eyes when it first rolled out, but ironically, later in the year Google Product Search made it on the list of search engines you’ve never heard of. An option that many companies have not yet tapped into is submitting services just as you would submit products.
9. Google continues to rail against paid links. The paid linking industry adjusts and continues to provide SEO benefit to its clients. SocialSpark was launched by PayPerPost in mid-2008, and the head of Google’s webspam team Matt Cutts says he actually likes IZEA’s new service. SocialSpark provides advertisers an opportunity to pay bloggers for a review but requires a nofollow link to the advertiser.Another paid link vendor, Text Link Ads (TLA) launched InLinks publicly in November. Throughout 2008, Google has commented and posted extensively that paid links are in violation of the FTC’s Guides Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. SEO bloggers have been debating about the impact of these changes as recently as the last few weeks.For whatever reason, Yahoo! and MSN haven’t been quite as vocal against paid linking in 2008. Yahoo! isn’t worried about the payment as much as the likelihood that a paid link usually doesn’t give as much value as a non-paid link.
10. SEO becomes more metrics driven as companies learn to measure their SEO performance. Absolutely. Tracking SEO leads and sales provides ROI that is critical to include in a company’s overall marketing expenditure analysis. The tricky part here is if the company knows what the value of a lead is to them or if they can track natural search visitors all the way through to a sale. During 2008, fewer companies were concerned about rankings as they were forced to look more at the bottom line.
11. Rumors swirl about an imminent merger between Yahoo! and Microsoft triggering a deluge of blog posts and nothing else. Yes, definitely. Talks between Yahoo! and Microsoft surfaced again early in the year but have fizzled quickly. Mid-2008 Google stole Yahoo! from Microsoft and became the attention of all, but that too died out by the end of the year. Although Google and Yahoo! gave it a shot with a trial period during the spring, antitrust scrutiny and regulatory concerns ultimately caused Google to call it quits with Yahoo.
12. The line between Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing blurs further, except among those that actually know how to perform SEO and/or SMM. SEO and SMM definitely continue to be blurred in some circles (i.e. many marketers think creating a Facebook page will greatly help their search engine efforts). While creation of the company’s profile in these outlets is a fairly straightforward process, actually promoting them becomes much trickier and requires a completely different set of goals and strategies. Tracking offline inquiries becomes an important consideration but is not yet mastered in most campaigns.

I recently spoke with Lauren Perdue, a natural search specialist at Apogee Search. She discussed social networking strategies that businesses should consider to increase their online presence.

First, let’s identify the difference between social networking vs. social media. Social networking sites are websites that allow people to connect and socialize. Usually, they have a profile based platform through which individuals create a profile and interact with other users. Social networking sites often offer a social media aspect within their sites, but this function is often secondary.

Social media, on the other hand, is self-published news or articles. Individuals can disseminate information without relying on a major news outlet. Social media has a very strong community aspect.

Businesses should consider using social networking sites since they are free and a great way to grow a loyal customer base. Facebook offers fan pages that companies can use for self promotion and to pass along information. This is a free option that any business can use to begin experimenting with social networking.

Businesses should be aware of the potential risks involved with social networking sites as well. They are opening themselves up for public comment, and these comments are not always positive. Companies should be especially careful if they have skeletons in their closet or other embarrassing information that they do not want to share.

Companies should also remember their goals when considering social networking options. If they do not have the time to continually update a blog, then they should not start one. Additionally, Twitter users often use cell phones to make updates. It doesn’t make sense for a company that forbids cell phone usage to utilize Twitter.

Social networking gives businesses the opportunity to interact with their consumers and to solicit feedback. There are very few forums that provide businesses as much information about their consumers as social networking.

Lauren concluded with two key tips for implementing a social networking camapign:

• Maintenance is key! Users will only participate when the content is interesting and when new information is contributed regularly.
• Try to maintain a fun and casual tone. Twitter and Facebook are not the place for stuffy, corporate tones. Keep these tools fun and interactive and you will find more success.

MapQuest recently added a Twitter feed to their local start pages that allows users to follow tweets from individuals living in their respective cities. All users have to do is select the city they’d like to follow, opt into the feed and voila! You can follow the tweets of people located in Austin, Portland, Boston, or any other city your inquisitive mind desires.  

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This development certainly adds to the already social aspect of the local start pages - you’ll notice the Local Reviews section of the page is “powered” by Yelp - and can provide small business owners with another opportunity to engage potential customers. Taken with the big picture in mind, the incorporation of Twitter into MapQuest Local follows the pattern of personalization across all Internet channels, from Google SearchWiki, the socialization of single sign-in protocols (Google Friend Connect, Facebook Connect) and personalized search results.  

Moving back to a more granular picture, the Twitter feed is not perfect.  The feed is not monitored or filtered, and as such, the feed picks up tweets originating from your city of choice regardless of the topic. Don’t be surprised to see an “F-bomb” appear in the feed — kids, cover your eyes! So, in terms of the feed providing small businesses with Tweeps (that’s Twitter for “peeps”) tweeting about your two-step lessons for twins, you’re out of luck. If you participate on Twitter as your business, you can potentially appear in the feed by posting consistently throughout the day - I posted a test tweet and it was picked up immediately by MapQuest’s Twitter feed.  

Additionally, the feed alerts you to active members of a burgeoning online community, and in this case an online community located in your city.  If you take only one thing away from this development, it should be to participate in these nodes of social media. Go where your customers socialize on the Internet, it’s all about the user!

Vivian Chang, a paid search consultant at Apogee Search, took a few minutes to speak with me about event driven paid search campaigns. Vivian shared a few tips and best practices that she has learned while managing event driven paid search campaigns for Apogee’s clients.

Vivian began by explaining that event driven paid search campaigns are paid search campaigns that focus on promoting a specific event. Event driven campaigns (versus a typical paid search campaign) are time sensitive and usually have a more substantial call to action.

Event driven paid search campaigns can be successful for almost any type of event. Vivian mentioned a few examples such as fundraisers, 5K walks and runs, conferences and retail sales.

When marketers plan for this type of campaign, they need to consider the strategy and goals of the campaign. Marketers should ensure that the paid search messaging is consistent with all media and promotions surrounding the event. The landing page should include all of the logistical details and include information on registering for, or attending the event. Conveying key information within the ad copy can prevent unqualified visitors from clicking on your ad and costing you money.

Vivian offered some additional helpful tips for advertisers to consider when running an event driven paid search campaign:

• Think about the timing of the ads. How far in advance will your attendees realistically need information on the event? Use this information to shape the dates that you run the ads.
• Include a call to action. The goal is to convey as much relevant information as possible. This can keep unqualified traffic from clicking on your ad.
• Geo-targeting your ads to specific cities or regions helps target only those who can participate in your event. You don’t want to waste money on clicks from people who support your event but are physically unable to attend it.
• Use negative keywords. View Google’s search query report to determine the keywords that are sending traffic you don’t want.
• Think about your keyword selection. Remember you want to generate awareness so broad keywords are beneficial.
• Use higher bids than for normal campaigns because you want your ads to show up quickly for a short period of time.
• Adjust bids and keywords as data becomes available. Google provides several tools to see what keywords are driving the most traffic, and what traffic is actually converting.