Search for Sony

I’ve had a task stuck in my milk can for a while now “Create additional SEO metrics to measure for organic growth”. It’s been there because I haven’t been able to figure out how to really break the paid organic traffic out from the rest of the organic traffic.

I had plenty of referring domain reports for our various properties that showed me how Google was doing. I also have no shortage of reporting on PPC from the engines and our web analytics tool, Omniture. I was a bit stuck on how to progress. Luckily I had a discussion with Director of Online for Sony, Jean-Christophe Alibert, and he had a simple suggestion that made me think duh!. It was one of those obvious things that once you see it you can’t believe you missed it.

Omniture has a simple report called the Search Keywords – Natural Report under Traffic Sources. I think one of the main reasons that I didn’t think of using this report was mainly because, like many reports in Omniture, I don’t trust the numbers. I’ve cross-checked the numbers for Sony Direct and as that site has not historically had a lot of Google love I could tell the numbers were off. The Traffic Sources Menu also has a report called Search Keywords – Paid Report, which is horribly wrong. When I try to compare it to my PPC reports or my tracking codes on my PPC campaigns it’s wrong. Back before we dumped Search Centre it was also way off of those reports. When you can’t even keep your own figures aligned you have a problem. Of course, Omniture always has reason why this and that don’t match, but reasons don’t make the numbers line up.

Well, as these reports are all I have for the moment they’ll have to do. The basic set up is to two way. First, watch the keywords that your SEO agency is targeting. These will have two phases. The first phase is rapid growth, which is when the agency first starts working on a term with the content team. The second phase is is jostling up. This is the steady growth or decline of a term depending on the little tweaks that are done.

The other way to watch the keyword growth is looking at the movers. Looking at the weekly trends you can see which words are gaining the most ground and try to see why they are moving. If it’s the agencies doing, then giving kudos, if it’s just automagic, then kudos to Google.

It’s a simple solution, which I should have been looking at long ago, but that’s learning for you.

KeyRelevence Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Keyword research should go everywhere. Make sure it is well integrated

· Trillion also search that shows what people search for after

· Word tracker beta coming out with a firefox plugin

· Google trends look for topical items to know the mind of people

· Google insights lets you drill down into cities, you can also see upcoming searches

· google hot trends lets you see what’s going on in a day.

· Yahoo! Buzz a nice place for what’s popular with news and events

· Facebook lexicon tells you wall posts on at certain terms

· Wikirank see what’s up with wikipedia and see the trend

· Twitter has hit the tipping point it’s grow +1300%check out twitter search

· also twitter has trended items

· Twitscoop shows what’s buzzing in real time

· Tweetvolume shows which term has more volume

· related is siteVolume, which shows you which gets the most volume on social volume (check out your competitors)

· #hashtags

· FriendSignal

· Sideline track terms

· Tweetbeep, twhirl

Wikipedia Tools

· Visiwiki, see relationships

· stats.grok.com see wikipedia stats

· wikipedia-roll see relationships

· EyePlorer

Keyword Tag Cloud

stumbleupon, delicious, technorati (can compare term volumes), tagcloud-generator.com, gives a nice cloud for your own site, Google search options (the new wonder wheel) can give ideas of support topics on a term, Google related searches, Wordspy find new words (like urban dictionary).

Competitive Intelligence tools

keywords (see the presentation for the list). Compete gives you competitor data.

Make sure to always look at many tools to be able to compare insight.

Comscore’s Marketer Tool. 2 million panelists and it tracks everything.

SEOMoz keyword difficulty tool, lets you know what’s is up with it and some background of who is doing what with terms.

Make sure to evaluate keyword from user intent, popularity, and competition. Look at trends, not absolute numbers.

WebCertain – Keyword Research

Offers multi-lingual keyword Research.

· Be clear about your Objectives

· SEO, paid, social media, localisation

· Getting buy in

· educating about the objectives

· ‘local’ doesn’t mean correct

· Make sure to include a research briefing from the original research and include any issue that were encountered

· Graphics are helpful (include word size to represent volume

· Be careful to keep up on any officially changed spellings (Government can require changes)

· Example ‘Old Timer’ do an image search to see what’s there, then check Google insights all country, see a graph on density (it’s probably just population). See global volume because it’s more reliable.

· Other languages have lots of issue, like plurals, propositions, alternate spellings, etc.

Don’t translate, don’t compare lengths, don’t expect to have an equivalent.

Q&A

Check wordle nice visualization of the terms from yoursite (nice and pretty).

Searchmark is another term I am trying to coin.

The definition is when someone uses Google to remember your site instead of a bookmark. In the industry this is referred to as a navigational search (I feel all powerful saying, “in the industry”).

Searchmarks are interesting because it is a more natural association for remembering. You simply need to remember the search query that took them to an interesting page, rather than trying to find their bookmark from their computer or from their bookmark tags online.

My favourite is when people use a paid searchmarks. This is when web users know that they can rely on your paid search campaigns to visit your site (as non-paid results change from time to time), so they click on your ad.

This is the notes I took on my phone during the conference. In hindsight this was a semi-interesting session, but after launching the BRAVIA TV spot search campaign I felt like I didn’t learn that much.

What I’d really like to see is if someone could do a study that shows a well done PPC campaign could increase retention of a television spot. Given that we spend a gajillion times more on TV versus PCP if I could prove that exposing people in Google helps them remember the TV message it would be easier to justify.

My big message for the industry is that if you don’t get that TV drives people to the Internet, please, please take your head out of the sand.

I also was frustrated with the presenters being so amazed that large and small companies had a hard time coordinating their online and offline campaigns.

Discussion Notes:

Integrating online and offline.

TV + online increases recognition

it’s all digital. Sharp used Facebook to build a campaign coordinated app.

One of the most basic things is tie in your web page with your campaign (Godaddy.com example)

look at Intel ad tomorrow. Highjack of nyt. Twittering, online what do want tomorrow.

• Find a trusted voice to drive brand equity
• get visual
• get a unique url

Google gadget for Sony ask Google (widget)

Response One – Strategy changes

Data driven experts in charity acquisition and optimizatio.

Search into media and media into search.

• Integration 39% of users bought from being brought in through search
• Matchback analysis.
• URL searches continue to increase
• Search as a harvested of TV campaign
• Make sure to attribute media related ads a higher amount to recoup the investment
• You really need to be well integrated in total planning
• Check out Response One’s awesome drawing

Mediavest – integrating and media

• consumers don’t trust companies not on google
• 2/3 of active internet users use the internet while watching TV
• TV helps to build the momentum and you can use them to extend the other
• Most people just type the URL
• Look for the best time on your TV ads (try small tests on East and West Europe)
• don’t pay twice! Use a tool to de-duplicate
• Microsoft can increase your display effectiveness (15%)
• Do retargeting drop a cookie and if he doesn’t buy try to cross sell and give them another offer that is complementary
• Make sure to integrate PR in the search group
• Check out Meercat campaign and see how they integrate

The best way to overcome silo effectiveness is through violence

Yahoo! – Search and Offline

integrated campaign case study and yahoo! Footfall report

walker campaign ‘do us a favour’. Got 1% of future profit

• Did a home page takeover broadcast,
• Had a channel, yahoo! Question for user feedback
• Asked for search do us a favour
• Did a search result with multiple links and integrated video or images
• Landed on Yahoo video
• Very consistent to the users (partnerships, display, PR, search)
• Search removes barriers to entry

Yahoo! Footfall Research

• Awareness familiarity consideration etc etc people bounce through the steps with search
• hesitation and information
• way too many options makes people feel helpless
• Interesting mix of survey participants
• Surprisingly some people think he can get a better deal through personal negotiation
• people are much more prepared with prices and options, they want a free showroom, because people know what they want and where they want to buy and they just want to touch it
• they hate the huddled sale people where one finds some time to visit with you

Q&A

Art of influence book by stanford author do you see when they pass the point of hesitation?

We don’t know they felt more uncertain.

Do a sponsored movie of product comparison

Doubletwist for TV sync’ing

Big Mouth Media –

• And huge increase to informational terms
• Because of the differences in volume of terms you need to be careful about the targeting you do.
• Make sure it is based on client data

Big Mouth Media – Head of search

• keyphrase length
• long term clear intent
• keyphrase length increasing in UK
• Navigational searches are down (less brand focused)more entertainment and deal oriented.
• Privacy: bigger issue (see browser enhancements)
• people trust engines less, but not dramatically so

Other Trends – Microsoft

• Use search for demographic info
• Search is pull (database of intentions)see Tesco search increase precipitated an increase in sales
• it’s important to keep track of who is behind the queries. Music is 50/50, but MP3 is predominately male.
• Is day of the week important as a trend in your business.
• Surprisingly, you can do all this with Live Search (duh)

Search and Usability -

• Refinding (trying to find back a site back)
• Informational (quick fact, answer to question)
• Exploratory search (pluralisation usually shows a desire for a list)
• Transactional intent (action words download not buy, listen to not buy)
• You should make sure to optimize to your action)
• navigational terms rarely get past first three links
• See apple the natural result for iPod. There is also a store ad
• Apple iPod nano (another store ad)SEO goes to info site
• the queries help you to know the type of content to provide
• Example of news show that causes spike of search data
• Searches is about the searchers
• See book When Search Meets Usability Shari Thurlow, Omni Marketing Interactive

Q&A

Is there a difference in men and women’s search terms?

Nobody knows all that much. There are some studies that show the eye tracking is the same (Nick S. says). A person in the audience said he has seen that women use more precise keyphrases.

Should you test Meta descriptions?

Yes, if you can.

I wanted to scratch out a post on this to make sure that the coining of this acronym is properly attributed to myself. SWAP is a more aggressive form of SEO where you promote specific web assets strategically rather than just working on your overall site.

The name came up when trying to find a difference between traditional SEO activities to improve overall traffic and strategically trying to improve assets that fit into your branding objectives.

I was reading an article about Social Media from Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrem about the lack of spend on social media sites and it seems so obvious. In PPC intent is king. That is why it is better to bid higher on keywords where intent is high.

I first learned about intent at Old Navy. Back in the day when I was working at Old Navy (a college job) one of our tasks was to give out shopping bags to customers. The floor manager would hold a contest where the person who gave out the most bags would win a little prize. I loved these competitions, mostly because I quite like candy. It was easy to win the competition just by smiling big and asking as many people as possible if they wanted a bag.

Most people would see my seemingly huge enthusiasm for giving them a bag and didn’t realize that I was just visualizing them as a big bag of smarties and they would take the bag. Obviously, Old Navy’s management knew that someone holding a bag is more likely to put things in that bag and then are more likely to buy some of those things. It is one of those click-whir persuasion techniques.

It is much more difficult as a search marketing manager to guide a customers intent like putting a bag in someone’s hand. Rather you are trying to find people who seem to already have a bag in their hand and get them to come to your site to finish the transaction. People searching for keywords associated with your brand and product is a great way to gauge intent. It is clear that a person who is hanging out with their friends, i.e. visiting social media sites, has extremely poor intent. At Old Navy I could also gauge poor intent in nearly the same way. I could be pretty sure of being rejected if people were chatting and not looking at the clothes, fussing with their children, or if they felt interrupted in some way. Being a sugar loving fiend I would ask anyway.

Agencies are still constantly pitching social media and speakers at conferences are regularly talking about how important it is as a place that big advertisers just have to be, because “that’s where the people are”. Well I could go stand outside a local church and hand out fliers, because that’s where the people also are. When I hear all that non-sense about social media I just look with big eyes and picture them as a bag of smarties.

Tags: PPC, intent

Baidu caught in search ad scandal, vows to overhaul system

Although I don’t personally run any ads in China I find this scandal shines some light on issues that plague all Search Marketing Managers.

Search engines in general are not terribly transparent. It’s no secret in the search marketing industry that most of what Google does is a secret. There is also the constant rumor that certain Indian/Chinese/Black hat affiliate companies can easily attack your keywords and drive up your costs. This scandal stirs up those same fears by showing that isn’t that difficult for an engine (or rogue employees within the company, depending on who you blame) to mess with the results, either paid or natural.

I do trust Google a lot, mostly because they give me a lot of free pens, but it’s true that as a consumer I am used to rather transparent auction processes (i.e. eBay) so it takes some getting used to realize that you just need to trust Google. I do think it can be frustrating though and when you read this kind of article you wonder how it really works if you could look into Google’s engineering black box.

I think it would be nice to have a little more transparency in who you are bidding against, without having to check each word on Google itself. When you are managing many countries and tens of thousands of keywords it isn’t particulaly practical.

As a side note, it is kind of funny at the end of the article that they badmouth Baidu for not doing more to combat music piracy, which in my opinion has really nothing to do with the article.  Oh well.

Tags: searchengines, SEO, China

I guess the hub-bub around SMX London is over, but I’d still like to write up my impressions of the various sessions I went to. I will do a short separate post on what I got out each session, rather than doing the all-my-impressions-and-pictures-in-one-very-long-post thing.

The sessions I went to were:

Day One

• Pump Up Your Paid Search (SMX Advanced Track: Focus on Ads)
• Landing Pages Testing & Optimisation (SMX Advance Track: Focus on Ads)
• Search Marketing & Persona Models (SMX Advance Track: Focus on Ads)
• Avoiding PPC Pitfalls (SMX Advance Track: Focus on Ads)

Day Two

• Integrating Search & Display Marketing Campaigns (Alternative Tactics & Diagnosis Track)
• What You Should Be Measuring — But Aren’t! (SMX Advance Track: Focus on Organic)

I’ll link each session with my post as I finish writing them.

Tags: Learning, PPC

SEOmozBlog has a nice article by Richard Cotton that mentions a great tool for looking at what questions are being asked with various keywords in them. The keyword question tool is from WordTracker Labs and looks great for building negative keyword lists.

I can see this being very useful because when we organize our PPC campaigns we use ad groups for the various match types and getting healthy traffic on broad match can be a real challenge when you have so many possible inquiries around a term like Sony.

Let’s see what examples the keyword question tool gives us:

Question		Times asked
1	what year did sony introduce the walkman	231
2	when was the sony walkman introduced	186
3	who invented the sony walkman	182
4	who founded sony	37
5	how much will a sony playstation 3 cost	15
6	how to free up hard drive space on sony vaio laptop	14
7	how sony data tiles work	8
8	how to program a sony remote	7
9	how to work with sony sound forge 9	6
10	when did sony start

Looks really interesting. I can immediately see some interesting negatives like introduce, found, and invent. I don’t see a lot of utility in adding additional terms, but looking at a number of brand variations there are tons of interesting negatives, things like reformat, boot, reset, install, and others.

I think that for a company creating a FAQ list this tool is gold and definitely anyone in service should be looking at this tool. I would really love to see this in other languages than English as well.

Overall a nice tool to add to your SEM toolkit.

Tags: tools, PPC