Geoff Ramsay from eMarketer is a smart guy. At Search Engine Strategies in New York last week, Geoff said that search marketing is only at 10% of its potential size. I'm not sure how Geoff quantified the 10% figure, but when it comes to the fact that we're only scratching the surface of search, I agree whole heartedly.
There was also a lot of press last week about Google's share price eroding because their CFO George Reyes said he expected slowing growth in the next quarter. So what's the deal? Is search growing, or isn't it?
The Google Sitemap program has brought a high level of assistance to web developers, web designers and business owners who want to optimize how their website's web pages are seen by the Google search engine. We all know how important page ranking is for a web page. The higher your page rank in Google, the more chances that it will be clicked and visited by visitors. Increased internet traffic is what drives sales and awareness for products and services.
The Google Sitemap program has become very popular because it made the task of submitting web pages to Google so much easier. A web developer or designer does not even have to worry about making frequent changes to the web pages because it is more easily known by Google. By presenting a constantly fresh index of web pages for your web site you are assured that what is presented in Google is the latest pages that you are maintaining.
By now everyone should know that duplicate content can (and likely will) get you penalized if not banned in the search engines.
But many times, we get questions asking what exactly duplicate content is? For example, we recently walked a client through a major transition and they were planning on hosting multiple copies or articles in various locations throughout the site.
Could the Sports Illustrated Jinx, where teams and athletes featured on the cover famously flounder soon after publication; have spread to their fellow Time, Inc. weekly Time Magazine? This week the boys from Google are gracing Time's cover and from their easy smiles (and a byline that mentions Internet domination) you'd think that the transformation is complete: Google has finally 'pwned' us all! Well, a theory that there is some kind of jinx fits because Google seems to be getting it from all angles now. But with all the piling on, it's important to remember that Google's core business, search advertising, is still very much a winner.
Barry Diller likes long shots. He's built a career betting on the long shot. Climbing from the mail room of the William Morris agency to network exec was business as usual for Diller. Taking ABC from a perpetual also-ran to challenge the dominance of CBS and NBC was not out of the realm of the doable. And Diller's Fox is the once impossible fourth network. So, don't be too quick to bet against him.
Today, Diller is stacking his chips for a run at the lucrative search market, and he�s betting that history can repeat itself. Fresh from killing off his venerable butler, Jeeves, Diller showcased the new Ask.com at the New York Search Engine Strategies show.
At the recent Wharton Technology Conference in Philadelphia representatives from Google, Yahoo and MSN Search discussed the future of search technologies.
The big search engine companies have different ideas on how search engines will change over the next few years.
Brossard, Canada -- Visicom Media Inc. today announced the release of VMN Toolbar Wizard, an online application that allows Web publishers to create their own branded toolbars. In about 10 minutes, publishers can deploy their toolbars on their Web sites.
The browser has now become the most wanted and strategic real estate on a PC. A toolbar is the best tool for a Web publisher to achieve high visibility in users' browsers and create top-of-mind awareness. VMN Toolbar Wizard puts the latest toolbar technology in the hands of publishers. Beside search functionality, a publisher's toolbar can be customized with popular features like RSS news, weather, games, antispyware scan, popup blocker, and more.
In November I wrote an article and referenced a trip that ICMediaDirect.com's VP of Business Development, Diana Lee, took to China. She participated in Shanghai's inaugural ad:tech conference. It was a great trip and our company's ties with China are stronger because of it. Like most Western companies doing business in China, we're just doing business and there are no extenuating circumstances. Google, the giant search engine, cannot say the same.
China is an economic giant warming up to the power of the Internet, but this hasn't been a perfect marriage so far. Centralized power and the decentralized nature of the Internet do not mesh well. Beijing feels compelled to exercise tight control over whatever flow of information they can in order to stifle potential dissent within Chinese society. A governmental missive from 2000 states plainly that Internet providers must restrict information that may 'harm the dignity and interests of the state'. And it is into the centrally run, Communist waters that Google waded into last week as they introduced their localized Chinese search engine, Google.cn.
I was at SES in New York last year and I was amazed at how many people it drew. This year I was unable to attend but have been keeping up with the sessions on various blogs and industry news sites, but it sounds like it was bigger than ever.
One thing that struck me is how the focus seems to be finally shifting from techniques and tactics to a more rounded approach where the user actually plays a part.
Imagine that? The search user is actually beginning to impact how we perform search engine marketing.
The struggle for customer share is as intense as ever, and companies need to shore up their corporate message in anyway they can. Corporate weblogs, or 'blogs', are a great, cost-effective way to engage customers, fellow professionals, or merely the curious. This opportunity to reach thousands of interested people requires no hefty advertising budget, yet can significantly strengthen your client-customer relationship. Taking dialogue online means added and valuable interaction with your customers.
A corporate blog can be used in any number of ways, from an informational hub to an online diary for a sales rep. They tend to be no less varied than personal blogs are. They deliver on-point messages to anyone who reads it. Since blog entries often have a personal touch, they tend to reach readers in ways a company homepage can't. This is where creative and well written blogs can really count; quality keeps people coming back. A blog isn't a venue for the hard sale but instead a resource where resource where readers can stay informed or sign up for newsletters and emailings.