Posts Tagged ‘Search Engine Marketing’
SEO Experiment Part Two
Earlier this week, we initiated an SEO experiment on a brand new domain name.
The goal was to see how quickly it would take to for a new website be listed in the SERPS, and how long until our began to rank for a competitive search phrase.
Within a few hours of listing the domain in Google and preforming minor off-site search engine optimisation and moderate on-site optimisation, the page was being crawled by Google’s bot and several other non-common search engine spiders.
Within 2 days, the domain is listed in Google’s results and is in number one position (Google Australian Search) amongst 164 million results, albeit no advertisers in this select term.
We are yet to attract attention from Yahoo, MSN or Ask.com Search Engine Spiders, but in our view this is quite an amazing result to achieve in two days, and we’ll be interested to see what more will come of this SEO experiment.
Stay tuned.
Search Engine News
Microsoft Kumo in Testing
Microsoft is currently testing “Kumo“, the internal project name used by Microsoft employees for it’s new search function which is said to not only provide an improved search feature, but also help users “accomplish tasks”.
Microsoft report that around 40% of all search queries go unanswered, and Satya Nadella, VP of Microsoft’s Online Service group claims that 46% of search queries last longer than 20 minutes, suggesting that the user has difficulty finding what it is they’re looking for, and 50% of queries are users returning to previous tasks.
One has to wonder if this is a flaw common amongst all search engines, or if perhaps Microsoft’s existing search engine isn’t delivering qualitative data, or grading it and ranking it in the SERPs accordingly.
In comparison to Google, it is said by most Search Engine Marketers, that you need to be at the top spot in the Search Engine Results Pages, or at least on the first pages. Google seems to present instant gratification, and their strategy is to keep users on the page for as little time as possible and get on with doing or viewing what it is they were searching for.
Perhaps a change in Microsoft’s algorithms delivered by Kumo may present a new way for searching and finding information on the web, and we can only watch and wait to see if they’re able to acheive that goal and re-gain some market share against the leading search giant, Google.
Former Yahoo Marketer Joins MSN
Scott Moore has Joined Microsoft’s search business as the U.S Executive Producer, responsible for MSNBC.com and Microsoft’s related Search Engine websites.
Scott was previously head of Yahoo!s search marketing business, and has re-joined Microsoft after four years working in Yahoo’s Media Division and begins his new role in March 2009.
Interestingly enough Moore is filling a role at Microsoft which was previously held by Jeff Dossett, and in a switch of roles, Dossett now fills Moore’s old shoes at Yahoo.
The Search Engine Business seems to be a very fluid and incestuous market, and the influences that both Dossett and Moore make in each of their roles have potential to do great things for Yahoo and MSN’s media divisions.
Scott has a background in Search Engine Marketing and will now be responsible for Microsoft’s content and programming strategy. Prior to his four years at Yahoo, Scott was at Microsoft for 10 years between 1995 - 2005, so he is rejoining the Microsoft flock, and is amongst many other key employees within Yahoo who have recently made the move to Microsoft.
Search Advertising Increases in uncertain times
The Global economy is in a down-turn. Mega-corporations are crashing. Currencies are slumping, and everywhere you turn, there is doom-and-gloom.
Despite this decline in global economies, it seems that online advertising is increasing, in the face of potential failure.
The Australian Internet Advertising Bureau suggests that 212 million dollars have been spent on online advertising in Australia alone during the first quarter of this financial year, growing 33% from the previous year.
This is an indicator of companies desire to attract new customers as revenues erode, and consumer confidence and spending falls.
It is also a testament to the faith that many companies now have in Search Marketing as a viable mechanism to attract customers, in uncertain times when accounting for every dollar is important, and measuring your success or failure is critical.
Search Advertising offers companies that peace of mind.
It is also important to remember that whilst Pay-Per-Click advertising can deliver a measurable and almost immediate return on investment, your dollars can often be squandered on higher numbers of clicks as customers are more price sensitive, and the fierce competition who are advertising in your space and increasing the cost of your bids to increase your customers.
Search King recommends to consider a two-pronged approach to search marketing, and that is to run PPC campaigns in the short-term, and a search engine optimisation project in the longer term, which should help attract customers, whilst lowering your spend in the months and years to come.
This article is brought to you by Search King.