Web site design, text and navigation are crucial to your online advertising campaign, even though they aren't a direct part of your search engine marketing package. Your Web site should not drive your customers away before they have a chance to purchase something or contact you!
If you are marketing on the Internet and these unacceptable errors appear on your Web site, fix them immediately.
1. Horrid Design
Giving shoppers heart attacks by using ugly, clashing site features is unacceptable. If these rules of classic simple design aren't familiar, follow them even more closely:
• Use black on white (or dark on light) text, for perfect readability.
• Choose muted, matching colors, no background or busy patterns.
• Support your text with carefully chosen, well-cropped photos, not animated cartoons.
2. Spelling and Grammatical Errors
You are not a bad person if you cannot spell. You are a bad person if you make people read misspellings in online marketing sites. If you appear unconcerned with details, customers may just skip over you.
• Run spell-check before printing your whole site.
• Locate a really good speller (you must know one) and buy him/her lunch.
• Have him/her mark and correct every error in your site text.
• Go to your Web designer and give him/her the list of corrections.
Our own Landing Pages (somewhat like mini-Web sites) are written and reviewed by expert editors, talented in writing ad copy. Spell-check software can't catch all errors, so don't rely on them exclusively.
3. Inconsistent Navigation
I visited a small online shopping site once. The navigation buttons changed on each page, and I never found the checkout or site search. (That's the punchline -- I only visited once.)
• Put a “Buy Now” link on every page. Help customers buy right now, whenever they choose.
• Don't make them hunt for your products. They might leave without spending their money!
-- Contributed by Dan Lozano
Posted Friday, June 26, 2009 by
WebVisible Team
Duplicate content penalties levied by Google against proxy sites are a topic of frequent discussion, both for SEO and SEM users. In my opinion, it is not a strong force significantly affecting most online advertising or small business Web sites.
The duplicate content penalty seems designed to prevent huge sites from clogging the useful results of other smaller pages with a large volume of database-generated pages. Those pages are (often deservedly) in a different category than most of the human-generated content that is useful to human searchers.
Many near-duplicates are screened out by search engines with a different mechanism. Google adds a note to the end of the results page saying, "In order to show you the most relevant results we have omitted some entries very similar to the XX already displayed."
This special feature is sensitive to the search term and seems meant to reduce the noise of numerous similar pages in the results without dinging their PageRank permanently. I have found it to do a good job of keeping the interesting results and filtering out only dry, truly duplicate and non-useful content.
I believe good content is the most critical element affecting both organic and search engine PPC page rankings. Your good content carries much more weight than limited, non-malicious, proxied duplicate content. And it helps your online advertising campaign. As a smart marketer, you can create unique content on your landing pages and product description pages that will boost your organic listings when prospects search on your targeted keywords. Good content is must for small business marketing online.
Google is well aware of the natural landscape of the Web. I think it is more interested in exposing the Web’s useful data and burying the less-useful data. In a judgment call between penalizing two small sites with instances of similar content, and penalizing a vast site’s thousands of pages of near-identical template content, I feel Google is likely to keep the smaller pages around and swipe the vast number of dull pages.
-- Contributed by Dan Lozano
The duplicate content penalty seems designed to prevent huge sites from clogging the useful results of other smaller pages with a large volume of database-generated pages. Those pages are (often deservedly) in a different category than most of the human-generated content that is useful to human searchers.Many near-duplicates are screened out by search engines with a different mechanism. Google adds a note to the end of the results page saying, "In order to show you the most relevant results we have omitted some entries very similar to the XX already displayed."
This special feature is sensitive to the search term and seems meant to reduce the noise of numerous similar pages in the results without dinging their PageRank permanently. I have found it to do a good job of keeping the interesting results and filtering out only dry, truly duplicate and non-useful content.
I believe good content is the most critical element affecting both organic and search engine PPC page rankings. Your good content carries much more weight than limited, non-malicious, proxied duplicate content. And it helps your online advertising campaign. As a smart marketer, you can create unique content on your landing pages and product description pages that will boost your organic listings when prospects search on your targeted keywords. Good content is must for small business marketing online.
Google is well aware of the natural landscape of the Web. I think it is more interested in exposing the Web’s useful data and burying the less-useful data. In a judgment call between penalizing two small sites with instances of similar content, and penalizing a vast site’s thousands of pages of near-identical template content, I feel Google is likely to keep the smaller pages around and swipe the vast number of dull pages.
-- Contributed by Dan Lozano
Posted Wednesday, June 24, 2009 by
WebVisible Team
In a recent article published at Investor’s Business Daily’s online site, the author, Alex Epstein, gets it right about Google and the current increase in antitrust laws (“Google Deserves to be Celebrated, Not Persecuted by Trustbusters, June 4th, 2009).
Purportedly, such antitrust laws will help competition. That is, they will help less profound companies (lesser than Google) better compete with larger companies. So claim the passers of such laws. In my opinion, and in the opinion of Mr. Epstein, this logic is wholly false.
Is it unfair that Google has 60 percent of the search engine market share? Does it follow that we need to create laws to establish a "fairer" playing field?
In answer to the first, no, it is not "unfair" that Google remains the behemoth we know it as. To answer the second question, one has to go back to the first and check their premises. Fairness has nothing to do with it. You wouldn't give special treatment to the Olympic swimmers competing against Michael Phelps. He dominates because he has tremendous talent, and he works his tail off.
If the Olympic Committee decided that eight gold medals was simply unfair, and that the other, less talented, less hard-working swimmers should be able to wear special aquatic turbo boosters to help with "competition," well, that would be crazy. Correct?
It's the same with Google. Just as Phelps is an amazing athlete, Google is an amazing online search engine that provides great opportunity for advertising on the Internet. Tell me, why should we punish Google by giving the less qualified, less impacting, less dominant businesses an upper hand? Do we not benefit greatly from Google's exceptional technological prowess? Does Google not deserve the market share it has rightfully achieved?
Alternatively, imagine if a company like WebVisible, Inc. was dealt the same blow, and each of our competitors was given an upper-hand, or some such tool to establish an artificially “level” playing field. We would, suffice to say, obviously suffer.
In the end, each individual athlete or business excels at its own rate, due to its own efforts, where each of us excels due to whatever acquired or inherent ability we have and because of our own individual action.
Despite what some say, Google does not have monopolistic power over the competition. Small businesses like WebVisible and the customers we help on a daily basis have the opportunity to achieve just the same - not because of a lending hand, but due to our own drive to succeed, our own prowess, our own exceptionality, and our own version of I Want to Be the Best.
-- Contributed by Non Talbot Wels
Purportedly, such antitrust laws will help competition. That is, they will help less profound companies (lesser than Google) better compete with larger companies. So claim the passers of such laws. In my opinion, and in the opinion of Mr. Epstein, this logic is wholly false.Is it unfair that Google has 60 percent of the search engine market share? Does it follow that we need to create laws to establish a "fairer" playing field?
In answer to the first, no, it is not "unfair" that Google remains the behemoth we know it as. To answer the second question, one has to go back to the first and check their premises. Fairness has nothing to do with it. You wouldn't give special treatment to the Olympic swimmers competing against Michael Phelps. He dominates because he has tremendous talent, and he works his tail off.
If the Olympic Committee decided that eight gold medals was simply unfair, and that the other, less talented, less hard-working swimmers should be able to wear special aquatic turbo boosters to help with "competition," well, that would be crazy. Correct?
It's the same with Google. Just as Phelps is an amazing athlete, Google is an amazing online search engine that provides great opportunity for advertising on the Internet. Tell me, why should we punish Google by giving the less qualified, less impacting, less dominant businesses an upper hand? Do we not benefit greatly from Google's exceptional technological prowess? Does Google not deserve the market share it has rightfully achieved?
Alternatively, imagine if a company like WebVisible, Inc. was dealt the same blow, and each of our competitors was given an upper-hand, or some such tool to establish an artificially “level” playing field. We would, suffice to say, obviously suffer.
In the end, each individual athlete or business excels at its own rate, due to its own efforts, where each of us excels due to whatever acquired or inherent ability we have and because of our own individual action.
Despite what some say, Google does not have monopolistic power over the competition. Small businesses like WebVisible and the customers we help on a daily basis have the opportunity to achieve just the same - not because of a lending hand, but due to our own drive to succeed, our own prowess, our own exceptionality, and our own version of I Want to Be the Best.
-- Contributed by Non Talbot Wels
Posted Monday, June 22, 2009 by
WebVisible Team
I am easily distracted -- when I see a bird flit by through the window, my head turns involuntarily to track it, just like the cat. And so on, and on, and on, with every trifling thing that affects my field of vision.
This necessitates me putting my back to the room if I want to do Internet marketing instead of visual ping-pong, and THAT is bad Feng Shui for thinking about online advertising campaigns.
My worst distraction is Outlook 2007; it is always visible, interrupting me constantly with updates and trivia even when I am locked in a quiet corner of the office. When inbound email arrives, the messages flicker and rearrange. Then a rule usually processes the new message, with another flurry of screen activity. My mail is always up on its own monitor; numerous inbound messages cause constant flickering, distracting me from the good fight of search engine marketing.
A solution came to me today, fully formed.
I created a folder in my main Mailbox called Inbox-screened. Then I made a new rule called Inbox-screened. This rule moves all incoming messages to the Inbox-screened folder, but it's last on the rule list, so it only really works on unhandled messages and exceptions.
Now I park Outlook in the Inbox-screened folder. The emails there have reached their final destination, so they don't move around by rule sorting. They usually require personal attention; my twitchy reflexes work for me now that they have something important to focus on.
Messages that are already covered by rules can flicker away in the now-forgotten Inbox as they wish, sorting themselves neatly. Only the exceptional message that isn't caught by other rules appears in Inbox-screened. No jumping screens or distractions distract me from deeper thought in the arena of Internet advertising.
-- Contributed by Dan Lozano
This necessitates me putting my back to the room if I want to do Internet marketing instead of visual ping-pong, and THAT is bad Feng Shui for thinking about online advertising campaigns.
My worst distraction is Outlook 2007; it is always visible, interrupting me constantly with updates and trivia even when I am locked in a quiet corner of the office. When inbound email arrives, the messages flicker and rearrange. Then a rule usually processes the new message, with another flurry of screen activity. My mail is always up on its own monitor; numerous inbound messages cause constant flickering, distracting me from the good fight of search engine marketing.A solution came to me today, fully formed.
I created a folder in my main Mailbox called Inbox-screened. Then I made a new rule called Inbox-screened. This rule moves all incoming messages to the Inbox-screened folder, but it's last on the rule list, so it only really works on unhandled messages and exceptions.
Now I park Outlook in the Inbox-screened folder. The emails there have reached their final destination, so they don't move around by rule sorting. They usually require personal attention; my twitchy reflexes work for me now that they have something important to focus on.
Messages that are already covered by rules can flicker away in the now-forgotten Inbox as they wish, sorting themselves neatly. Only the exceptional message that isn't caught by other rules appears in Inbox-screened. No jumping screens or distractions distract me from deeper thought in the arena of Internet advertising.
-- Contributed by Dan Lozano
Posted Tuesday, June 16, 2009 by
WebVisible Team
Good, dense text is the perfect material for a Web site. Automated search tools will locate and index your keyword-rich text, improving your page's ‘findability’ and search rank accordingly – a great compliment to your online advertising efforts.
In the first installment, I mercilessly hacked a perfectly good paragraph into shape, reducing it to 41 percent of its original word count.
Though an extreme example, it shows that I can put the same information into a smaller space, or put more information into the original space. Since you have about half a minute to draw your visitor in, this is very useful time.
Below are some observations of the edit process, for good or bad:
• Struck a number of very useful and informative sentences to minimize the word count.
• Lost some useless information, and some valuable information.
• Removed all traces of conversational style in favor of a terse information-dense format.
• Readability goes down as density increases; sometimes, looser text is more effective.
• Absolutely eliminated any florid or 'purple' prose.
• Sharpened the content so every sentence was a combination of valuable items previously discarded.
• Reorganized to group like content.
• Considered the flow of the paragraph, and put content in its best possible order.
• Didn't get attached to any sentence ─ if you really need to say it, go ahead, but do you really need to say it?
Below are some favorite techniques when writing for density:
• Avoid metadiscourse: "You can see that..." and "I think that..."
• Say it once only (unless summarizing a longer text).
• Convert passive voice to active.
• Use vivid mental imagery.
• Exact word choice matters enormously!
• You can always add it back later, but only if you remove it first.
• Write to concrete word count goals. This really strengthens your skills at deleting text while retaining its meaning via rewrites.
Remember: good writing is the cornerstone of both search engine optimization and effective Internet advertising for small businesses.
-- Contributed by Dan Lozano
In the first installment, I mercilessly hacked a perfectly good paragraph into shape, reducing it to 41 percent of its original word count.
Though an extreme example, it shows that I can put the same information into a smaller space, or put more information into the original space. Since you have about half a minute to draw your visitor in, this is very useful time.
Below are some observations of the edit process, for good or bad:
• Struck a number of very useful and informative sentences to minimize the word count.
• Lost some useless information, and some valuable information.
• Removed all traces of conversational style in favor of a terse information-dense format.
• Readability goes down as density increases; sometimes, looser text is more effective.
• Absolutely eliminated any florid or 'purple' prose.
• Sharpened the content so every sentence was a combination of valuable items previously discarded.
• Reorganized to group like content.
• Considered the flow of the paragraph, and put content in its best possible order.
• Didn't get attached to any sentence ─ if you really need to say it, go ahead, but do you really need to say it?
Below are some favorite techniques when writing for density:
• Avoid metadiscourse: "You can see that..." and "I think that..."
• Say it once only (unless summarizing a longer text).
• Convert passive voice to active.
• Use vivid mental imagery.
• Exact word choice matters enormously!
• You can always add it back later, but only if you remove it first.
• Write to concrete word count goals. This really strengthens your skills at deleting text while retaining its meaning via rewrites.
Remember: good writing is the cornerstone of both search engine optimization and effective Internet advertising for small businesses.
-- Contributed by Dan Lozano
Posted Friday, June 12, 2009 by
WebVisible Team
Once upon a time, in the cold, lonely, pre-post-historic days before everything important had two syllables (Google, Twitter, Facebook), and before the Internet itself was the ubiquitous mind-melding leviathan it has since become, I started a small business making surfboards in my parents’ garage.
I worked hard, had fun and relied mostly on word-of-mouth to sell my sleek creations of toxic foam and fiberglass. My target market consisted of high school friends and acquaintances. My business partnerships comprised my father, who grudgingly allowed me to use his shop vac, and my 13-year-old brother, who provided much unsolicited advice.
This was 1989. Bush 1 was president. Grunge loomed on the horizon like a flannel sunrise. Moviegoers eagerly awaited the release of Back to the Future, Part II. But I was 17 and ambitious. I was febrile with the idea of becoming a surfboard manufacturing magnate. By the time I was 25 (I surmised) I’d be so rich that I’d be able to hop on my private jet for impromptu surf sessions in Uluwatu or Kirra. But how to get there? “You need to advertise,” my younger brother quipped between Otter Pops.
Advertise? Sure, why not. But my marketing options seemed either ridiculously out of reach (TV commercials) or ridiculously small beer (flyers on car windows). After batting some ideas and cost estimates back and forth, I decided to rely instead on the Field of Dreams marketing strategy: if you build it, they will come. And they did come: a few more friends, my woodshop teacher Mr. Matsuyama, a couple of kids from other schools, and a second-cousin.
Then the price of materials began to go up. I was also close to failing a couple of classes. I was forced to hunker down and scale back my operation before it even got off the ground.
The old saw that “timing is everything” is, well, everything. A small business in 1989 and a small business in 2009 stand as far apart from one another in terms of targeted marketing as the catapult stands to the ICBM. The Internet, blogosphere and search engine marketing triumvirate are redefining what a small local business means, and how swiftly and accurately it can reach the customers who want and need exactly what it offers through online advertising.
Dark garages can be fertile ground for creativity; they gave us Grunge and Microsoft, after all, not to mention a few surfboards that still serve me well. But it’s a brave new world all over again, with tremendous Internet advertising for small business possibilities. Time to come out of the proverbial garage and into the light.
-- Contributed by Derek Hoffmann
I worked hard, had fun and relied mostly on word-of-mouth to sell my sleek creations of toxic foam and fiberglass. My target market consisted of high school friends and acquaintances. My business partnerships comprised my father, who grudgingly allowed me to use his shop vac, and my 13-year-old brother, who provided much unsolicited advice.
This was 1989. Bush 1 was president. Grunge loomed on the horizon like a flannel sunrise. Moviegoers eagerly awaited the release of Back to the Future, Part II. But I was 17 and ambitious. I was febrile with the idea of becoming a surfboard manufacturing magnate. By the time I was 25 (I surmised) I’d be so rich that I’d be able to hop on my private jet for impromptu surf sessions in Uluwatu or Kirra. But how to get there? “You need to advertise,” my younger brother quipped between Otter Pops.
Advertise? Sure, why not. But my marketing options seemed either ridiculously out of reach (TV commercials) or ridiculously small beer (flyers on car windows). After batting some ideas and cost estimates back and forth, I decided to rely instead on the Field of Dreams marketing strategy: if you build it, they will come. And they did come: a few more friends, my woodshop teacher Mr. Matsuyama, a couple of kids from other schools, and a second-cousin.
Then the price of materials began to go up. I was also close to failing a couple of classes. I was forced to hunker down and scale back my operation before it even got off the ground.
The old saw that “timing is everything” is, well, everything. A small business in 1989 and a small business in 2009 stand as far apart from one another in terms of targeted marketing as the catapult stands to the ICBM. The Internet, blogosphere and search engine marketing triumvirate are redefining what a small local business means, and how swiftly and accurately it can reach the customers who want and need exactly what it offers through online advertising.
Dark garages can be fertile ground for creativity; they gave us Grunge and Microsoft, after all, not to mention a few surfboards that still serve me well. But it’s a brave new world all over again, with tremendous Internet advertising for small business possibilities. Time to come out of the proverbial garage and into the light.
-- Contributed by Derek Hoffmann
Posted Friday, June 12, 2009 by
WebVisible Team
Blaise Pascal once wrote, "I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter."
Let's trim and regroup a paragraph for maximum effect.
Here's a draft paragraph: (137 words)
"Good writing is marked by certain traits - it is short, elegant, and effective. Good writing is the core of search engine optimization and online advertising and marketing. It is also the essence of your message to the customer. It gives the customer a call to action, for our purposes, or it provides prospects with information to support their decision to use you. When I review my drafts; I always see several layers of improvements waiting to be made. I mercilessly strike out probably 50 to 60 percent of my words when I write, no matter how much I feel they contribute. This is necessary to reduce word count, redundancy, and aimless sentences, and to reorganize text into its most effective order. I revise my tightest writing three to 10 times until I feel it passes muster."
Now, the revision: (55 words!)
"Good writing is search engine optimization and marketing. It contains only your essential message - giving your customer a brief education, sales pitch, and compelling call to action. The first draft is a place to gather ideas. Later, remove items that don't drive your point forward, and organize your text to develop its full power."
DRAFT:
Topic goes first, or last
Gather ideas freely, later edit to desired word count
REVIEW:
• Outline frequently
• Ask: How? What? Why? Always answer these questions!
• Strike prepositional phrases, redundancy, and all fillers
• Change passive to active voice
• Preserve core meanings
• Play with words - what feels best?
• Group similarities
• Reduce and regroup, until you have a cohesive message
• Capture all unrelated/fleeting thoughts for later
-- Contributed by Dan Lozano
Let's trim and regroup a paragraph for maximum effect.
Here's a draft paragraph: (137 words)
"Good writing is marked by certain traits - it is short, elegant, and effective. Good writing is the core of search engine optimization and online advertising and marketing. It is also the essence of your message to the customer. It gives the customer a call to action, for our purposes, or it provides prospects with information to support their decision to use you. When I review my drafts; I always see several layers of improvements waiting to be made. I mercilessly strike out probably 50 to 60 percent of my words when I write, no matter how much I feel they contribute. This is necessary to reduce word count, redundancy, and aimless sentences, and to reorganize text into its most effective order. I revise my tightest writing three to 10 times until I feel it passes muster."
Now, the revision: (55 words!)
"Good writing is search engine optimization and marketing. It contains only your essential message - giving your customer a brief education, sales pitch, and compelling call to action. The first draft is a place to gather ideas. Later, remove items that don't drive your point forward, and organize your text to develop its full power."
DRAFT:
Topic goes first, or last
Gather ideas freely, later edit to desired word count
REVIEW:
• Outline frequently
• Ask: How? What? Why? Always answer these questions!
• Strike prepositional phrases, redundancy, and all fillers
• Change passive to active voice
• Preserve core meanings
• Play with words - what feels best?
• Group similarities
• Reduce and regroup, until you have a cohesive message
• Capture all unrelated/fleeting thoughts for later
-- Contributed by Dan Lozano
Posted Thursday, June 11, 2009 by
WebVisible Team
Google search has made some adjustments lately that change the search engine results page. If you type a longer search term, you can now see larger snippets from each result!
For instance, I get two lines of text back for each result when I make this search:
Blue widgets
But this search gives me three lines of text back for many results:
Blue widgets and their application in widgetology
And this search nets me four lines of text description for many of the results:
Blue widgets and their application in widget replication and analysis
This is a great feature - Google is stretching its performance to improve the data it provides. This won't change your search engine marketing results, but in terms of site content, it gives you the ability to get more of your good content in front of searchers to sway their decisions and pull them over to your site (afterall the goal of successful Internet advertising!).
Take this great opportunity to research your own site's results on the search engines, and update your pages with fresh useful content:
• In Google Preferences, set Number of Results to 100
• Type in site:yoursitename.com [omit 'http://www.' and press Search]
• Click the Cached link to see Google's copy of your page
• Then click Text-only version to see when Google cached your page.
More recent cache updates generally indicate more active popular pages. Track your highest pages for a while and update them frequently with good info to keep them high in the results. Add links to relevant pages on your site.
When people search common terms that pull up your pages, you are competing with other pages to grab reader attention and clicks. Writing concise, compelling content is more valuable now since more of it can be read by people who make more precise searches.
-- Contributed by Dan Lozano
For instance, I get two lines of text back for each result when I make this search: Blue widgets
But this search gives me three lines of text back for many results:
Blue widgets and their application in widgetology
And this search nets me four lines of text description for many of the results:
Blue widgets and their application in widget replication and analysis
This is a great feature - Google is stretching its performance to improve the data it provides. This won't change your search engine marketing results, but in terms of site content, it gives you the ability to get more of your good content in front of searchers to sway their decisions and pull them over to your site (afterall the goal of successful Internet advertising!).
Take this great opportunity to research your own site's results on the search engines, and update your pages with fresh useful content:
• In Google Preferences, set Number of Results to 100
• Type in site:yoursitename.com [omit 'http://www.' and press Search]
• Click the Cached link to see Google's copy of your page
• Then click Text-only version to see when Google cached your page.
More recent cache updates generally indicate more active popular pages. Track your highest pages for a while and update them frequently with good info to keep them high in the results. Add links to relevant pages on your site.
When people search common terms that pull up your pages, you are competing with other pages to grab reader attention and clicks. Writing concise, compelling content is more valuable now since more of it can be read by people who make more precise searches.
-- Contributed by Dan Lozano
Posted Wednesday, June 10, 2009 by
WebVisible Team
As mentioned in my last post, Google has a new tool coming out later this year for communication and collaboration on the Web. Google Wave is a combination of all the technologies that were introduced to us in the past decade. It enables real-time conversation similar to instant messaging to a degree where you can introduce a third person into the conversation who can play back a previous conversation that was ongoing before their arrival.
According to Google, "A wave is equal parts conversation and document." They are using the conversational technology introduced in Gmail in this brand new medium where collaboration and work become more synergistic. A wave is shared where any participant involved in this conversation can actively contribute to the final product/conversation/result conclusion.
Google has made the wave live, meaning it is an instant transmission of data as you speak it, similar to a phone conversation but now it’s text based, and it’s even faster than instant messaging as you can see the text being typed by the other person as they press the keys.
Google has introduced several extensions such as Linky, Mapy, and Searchy, which drop in results from those media on the fly. Linky will activate a selected text to make it a link as it detects what is typed, Mapy inserts a map in the place of a selected text or an address, and Searchy plugs in the links from a searched item. And this is just the beginning. In the demo, the Twitter extension was also enabled, which lets you check your Twitter feed from within the client. Waves can also be integrated with blogs to enable commenting on blog posts from within the Wave client.
With this brand new platform, which is something that we've all have been waiting for but didn’t know it, Google has done it again. Google Wave will be available later this year and they've opened up the door for developers to come in with their ideas to build tools based on Wave.
Pretty soon, we'll be saying good-bye to email and hello to Wave...
-- Contributed by Junaid Ahmed
According to Google, "A wave is equal parts conversation and document." They are using the conversational technology introduced in Gmail in this brand new medium where collaboration and work become more synergistic. A wave is shared where any participant involved in this conversation can actively contribute to the final product/conversation/result conclusion.
Google has made the wave live, meaning it is an instant transmission of data as you speak it, similar to a phone conversation but now it’s text based, and it’s even faster than instant messaging as you can see the text being typed by the other person as they press the keys.
Google has introduced several extensions such as Linky, Mapy, and Searchy, which drop in results from those media on the fly. Linky will activate a selected text to make it a link as it detects what is typed, Mapy inserts a map in the place of a selected text or an address, and Searchy plugs in the links from a searched item. And this is just the beginning. In the demo, the Twitter extension was also enabled, which lets you check your Twitter feed from within the client. Waves can also be integrated with blogs to enable commenting on blog posts from within the Wave client.
With this brand new platform, which is something that we've all have been waiting for but didn’t know it, Google has done it again. Google Wave will be available later this year and they've opened up the door for developers to come in with their ideas to build tools based on Wave.
Pretty soon, we'll be saying good-bye to email and hello to Wave...
-- Contributed by Junaid Ahmed
Posted Tuesday, June 9, 2009 by
WebVisible Team
With the advent of the Internet, which came to life about two decades ago, we've been using a platform built 40 years ago called the electronic mail or email. It is an open platform and literally 100s of software applications have implemented the system across several platforms to enable communication using the email system. It mimics the regular mail system, with the creation of mail boxes, mail sorting facilities, post box offices, and delivery trucks, etc.
It was a grand improvement from telegraph, and you were able to type out messages on your computer and hit send, upon which your recipient would receive your message and could reply or forward it. In those times, email was an idea that people used and found amazing long before the Internet was born. It helped professors communicate offline without having to wait as long as they'd have to with traditional mail systems.
Today, email is one of the most frequently used media for transmitting and receiving all sorts of information including photos, documents, presentations, videos and more. Even though it does do the job that it was designed to do 40 years ago, it is getting old and is not very efficient anymore. With the introduction of technologies such as Instant Messaging, SMS, Twitter, Facebook, and social networking communications, email is left in the dust with its slow, obsolete methodology.
Google brought us Gmail a few years back, which introduced a completely different way of using email. You never have to organize your email messages by folders and subfolders. Instead, you can use the search feature to find all of the emails messages and email conversations relevant to that search term.
Google's engineers, the original creators of Google Maps (which revolutionized online maps), developed a completely new platform which is 100 percent open source ─ a system which takes into account all of the wonderful things the Internet has introduced to our lives. From instant messaging, social networking, live searching with Twitter, Google search, news and RSS feeds to follow up with blog posts across the entire blogosphere to communicating in semi-live form on Facebook, Orkut, Bebo, MySpace, and other social networking platforms. These engineers have also kept up with the development and collaboration of extensions, which were initially introduced to software by Firefox with its extensible platform. Or was it WordPress, with the ability to add-on code snippets to make the site more homogenous?
Google’s new platform is coming later this year, a tool for communication and collaboration on the Web called Google Wave. More in my next post.
-- Contributed by Junaid Ahmed
It was a grand improvement from telegraph, and you were able to type out messages on your computer and hit send, upon which your recipient would receive your message and could reply or forward it. In those times, email was an idea that people used and found amazing long before the Internet was born. It helped professors communicate offline without having to wait as long as they'd have to with traditional mail systems. Today, email is one of the most frequently used media for transmitting and receiving all sorts of information including photos, documents, presentations, videos and more. Even though it does do the job that it was designed to do 40 years ago, it is getting old and is not very efficient anymore. With the introduction of technologies such as Instant Messaging, SMS, Twitter, Facebook, and social networking communications, email is left in the dust with its slow, obsolete methodology.
Google brought us Gmail a few years back, which introduced a completely different way of using email. You never have to organize your email messages by folders and subfolders. Instead, you can use the search feature to find all of the emails messages and email conversations relevant to that search term.
Google's engineers, the original creators of Google Maps (which revolutionized online maps), developed a completely new platform which is 100 percent open source ─ a system which takes into account all of the wonderful things the Internet has introduced to our lives. From instant messaging, social networking, live searching with Twitter, Google search, news and RSS feeds to follow up with blog posts across the entire blogosphere to communicating in semi-live form on Facebook, Orkut, Bebo, MySpace, and other social networking platforms. These engineers have also kept up with the development and collaboration of extensions, which were initially introduced to software by Firefox with its extensible platform. Or was it WordPress, with the ability to add-on code snippets to make the site more homogenous?
Google’s new platform is coming later this year, a tool for communication and collaboration on the Web called Google Wave. More in my next post.
-- Contributed by Junaid Ahmed
Posted Friday, June 5, 2009 by
WebVisible Team
In the first installment I covered the valuable Meta tags “description” and “keywords.” This time I’ll present more techniques that can help your site gain better organic (non-SEM-related) rank to compliment your online Internet marketing efforts.
First, a word on the Meta keywords. These have less significance on the modern Web, because they’ve been exploited heavily in the past. I would still advise you to keep them in your pages and sync them to your page’s content; however, there’s no need to give them undue focus.
One important page component similar to Meta tags is the page title. This appears in the title bar of the browser when your page is loaded. Keep it around 65 characters to ensure it can be fully read in most browsers and situations. Google often uses this as the actual link to your page in the organic results section, so make it accurate, brief, and descriptive. Put it on 100% of the pages on your site.
Only use Metas or titles that match, describe, and augment your page content. Keep your keywords brief, avoiding repetition of identical keywords. Implementing other naïve techniques can lower your good position in the search results, if the search engines feel you’re stepping over the line of good thinking.
Don’t repeat text excessively on your page in an attempt to weight your keyword density. This will cost you page readership more than it will impress the increasingly savvy and choosy search engines. There's lots of content for them to choose from, so keep it straightforward.
This article is just a jumping-off point. You will need to consult your web host or designer to learn how to add this important content to your site. These SEO techniques enhance your organic results, not your search engine PPC results.
-- Contributed by Dan Lozano
First, a word on the Meta keywords. These have less significance on the modern Web, because they’ve been exploited heavily in the past. I would still advise you to keep them in your pages and sync them to your page’s content; however, there’s no need to give them undue focus.
One important page component similar to Meta tags is the page title. This appears in the title bar of the browser when your page is loaded. Keep it around 65 characters to ensure it can be fully read in most browsers and situations. Google often uses this as the actual link to your page in the organic results section, so make it accurate, brief, and descriptive. Put it on 100% of the pages on your site.Only use Metas or titles that match, describe, and augment your page content. Keep your keywords brief, avoiding repetition of identical keywords. Implementing other naïve techniques can lower your good position in the search results, if the search engines feel you’re stepping over the line of good thinking.
Don’t repeat text excessively on your page in an attempt to weight your keyword density. This will cost you page readership more than it will impress the increasingly savvy and choosy search engines. There's lots of content for them to choose from, so keep it straightforward.
This article is just a jumping-off point. You will need to consult your web host or designer to learn how to add this important content to your site. These SEO techniques enhance your organic results, not your search engine PPC results.
-- Contributed by Dan Lozano
Posted Thursday, June 4, 2009 by
WebVisible Team
(Traditional)
There's an old-timey song and I’ll sing it to you so,
Of patience and persistence -- ways to make your fortune grow;
Of the dog in the bathtub, and the fate you must avoid,
Of generating profit (and remaining em-pah-loyed!)
When your online ads are new, you’ll be rarin' up to go,
You want to get the word out and to let the people know
Well, you’re right to be excited 'bout your message on the Net,
So take a little lesson and avoid these regrets!
The internets are vast, and there's nobody a-knowin'
Just where your ads will show, or to whom they are a-showin' --
But your ad views are free, so don’t you start to buck and holler;
You’ll be seen on the web and the leads are bound to foller.
Well the dog in the bathtub wants to spring right out,
He’d go running all directions, no idea what about;
Keep your thoughts on the reward (and maybe even do the math)
And remember you’re not drownin’, for each dog must get its bath.
Keywords, ads, and content need their time to plan and rest
As they develop strategies for to give you all their best;
If your campaign you’re a-changing, as you fidget and you fret
Your ads will have no traction, like a dog that’s sopping wet.
There's an old-timey song and I’ll sing it to you so,
Of patience and persistence -- ways to make your fortune grow;
Of the dog in the bathtub, and the fate you must avoid,
Of generating profit (and remaining em-pah-loyed!)
When your online ads are new, you’ll be rarin' up to go,
You want to get the word out and to let the people know
Well, you’re right to be excited 'bout your message on the Net,
So take a little lesson and avoid these regrets!
The internets are vast, and there's nobody a-knowin'
Just where your ads will show, or to whom they are a-showin' --
But your ad views are free, so don’t you start to buck and holler;
You’ll be seen on the web and the leads are bound to foller.
Well the dog in the bathtub wants to spring right out,
He’d go running all directions, no idea what about;
Keep your thoughts on the reward (and maybe even do the math)
And remember you’re not drownin’, for each dog must get its bath.
Keywords, ads, and content need their time to plan and rest
As they develop strategies for to give you all their best;
If your campaign you’re a-changing, as you fidget and you fret
Your ads will have no traction, like a dog that’s sopping wet.
- Don’t let initial excitement make you impatient; we (and the search engines) optimize your performance over the long run.
- Internet ads are displayed as often as necessary to generate your clicks, even if you can’t locate them yourself.
- Make factual corrections to your keywords and online ads if needed, then keep them the same for at least a month.
- Focus on long-term results and ROI.
Posted Wednesday, June 3, 2009 by
WebVisible Team
Posted Wednesday, June 3, 2009 by
WebVisible Team
It’s tough out there in newspaper land. The Chicago Tribune… The Rocky Mountain News… The Seattle Post Intelligencer… and the list marches on. What’s happening here?
According to a Pew Research Center study, for the first time, more Americans got their news online for free than paid for it in magazines and newspapers!
Newspapers predominantly make their money through newsstand sales, subscriptions and advertising. With the first two of the legs being kicked out from under them, the business model begins to fall apart. And with declining readership comes declining advertising revenue and the stool collapses.
Selling online advertising has helped newspapers offset the steady decline in print, but it’s a supplement, not a meal. This leaves newspapers looking for alternate methods of generating revenue to continue publishing content created by professional writers. These days anyone can put up a blog. But paid editorial staffs are a good thing. It pays for trained journalists, their expenses and important little things like real editors and fact checking. "Ideally" this translates to quality.
And the decline in revenue leaves the papers weak and vulnerable to special interest pressures. Just ask the San Diego Union Tribune which was recently pressured by the Los Angeles police officers and fire fighters pension fund (which owns $30 million of Platinum Equity, Tribune’s parent company) to change its editorial stance or fire its writers. "Since the very public employees they continually criticize are now their owners, we strongly believe that those who currently run the editorial pages should be replaced," said League President Paul M. Weber. Wow.
But getting people to pay for content and attracting advertisers is getting harder and harder. So what are the alternatives? Lots of ideas are being kicked around. Says Dallas Mavricks owner, Mark Cuban, “The quickest and easiest place to start would be by making sure that every time I went to DallasNews.com you knew that my credit card was on file and you offered me specials… If some local artist has a small or large hit, go to the label and try to license it and offer it for free to those of us who pay by card.”
Others have suggested offering section sponsorships: the Lakers or Raiders for example sponsor the LA Times sports section… or Staples the business section, or – well, you get the idea. Or what about partnering with an outfit like coupons.com? And there are dozens of others.
Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal announced a “sophisticated micro-payments service” to launch this fall. There have been quite a few failed Internet micro-payment systems. And this is the first time a major newspaper adopted one, so the other big papers will be watching closely.
But for now, local online advertising is, and search engine marketing services are, the shining star helping many papers stay afloat.
-- Contributed by Jeff Werner
According to a Pew Research Center study, for the first time, more Americans got their news online for free than paid for it in magazines and newspapers!
Newspapers predominantly make their money through newsstand sales, subscriptions and advertising. With the first two of the legs being kicked out from under them, the business model begins to fall apart. And with declining readership comes declining advertising revenue and the stool collapses.Selling online advertising has helped newspapers offset the steady decline in print, but it’s a supplement, not a meal. This leaves newspapers looking for alternate methods of generating revenue to continue publishing content created by professional writers. These days anyone can put up a blog. But paid editorial staffs are a good thing. It pays for trained journalists, their expenses and important little things like real editors and fact checking. "Ideally" this translates to quality.
And the decline in revenue leaves the papers weak and vulnerable to special interest pressures. Just ask the San Diego Union Tribune which was recently pressured by the Los Angeles police officers and fire fighters pension fund (which owns $30 million of Platinum Equity, Tribune’s parent company) to change its editorial stance or fire its writers. "Since the very public employees they continually criticize are now their owners, we strongly believe that those who currently run the editorial pages should be replaced," said League President Paul M. Weber. Wow.
But getting people to pay for content and attracting advertisers is getting harder and harder. So what are the alternatives? Lots of ideas are being kicked around. Says Dallas Mavricks owner, Mark Cuban, “The quickest and easiest place to start would be by making sure that every time I went to DallasNews.com you knew that my credit card was on file and you offered me specials… If some local artist has a small or large hit, go to the label and try to license it and offer it for free to those of us who pay by card.”
Others have suggested offering section sponsorships: the Lakers or Raiders for example sponsor the LA Times sports section… or Staples the business section, or – well, you get the idea. Or what about partnering with an outfit like coupons.com? And there are dozens of others.
Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal announced a “sophisticated micro-payments service” to launch this fall. There have been quite a few failed Internet micro-payment systems. And this is the first time a major newspaper adopted one, so the other big papers will be watching closely.
But for now, local online advertising is, and search engine marketing services are, the shining star helping many papers stay afloat.
-- Contributed by Jeff Werner
Posted Tuesday, June 2, 2009 by
WebVisible Team
Tips for Marketing on the Internet
Most of us know the name Charles Ponzi or are familiar with the eponymous fraud he perpetrated, and you can’t innocently search the Web these days for “goat glands” without tripping over the bio of super quack Dr. John R. Brinkley, who implanted said hircine parts into gullible men to restore virility. Thankfully, this kind of outlandish dupery is rare; usually, there’s more subtle chicanery afoot.
Enter Black Hat SEO.
In a nutshell, Black Hat SEO describes search engine optimization strategies that boost the ranking of your Web site via methods described as disreputable at best, unethical at worst.
Black Hatters promise increased traffic to your site by “tricking” the search engines; they fail to mention the downside of these practices, however, which can include your site getting reported and even blacklisted.
Some of the more infamous Black Hat SEO tactics include:
Don’t buy the snake oil. Seek to establish a legitimate and lasting Web presence and a loyal customer base over illusory rankings and temporary visibility. Quality traffic and legitimate search engine placement will always pay off in the long run when you’re marketing on the Internet.
-- Contributed by Derek Hoffmann
Most of us know the name Charles Ponzi or are familiar with the eponymous fraud he perpetrated, and you can’t innocently search the Web these days for “goat glands” without tripping over the bio of super quack Dr. John R. Brinkley, who implanted said hircine parts into gullible men to restore virility. Thankfully, this kind of outlandish dupery is rare; usually, there’s more subtle chicanery afoot.
Enter Black Hat SEO.
In a nutshell, Black Hat SEO describes search engine optimization strategies that boost the ranking of your Web site via methods described as disreputable at best, unethical at worst.
Black Hatters promise increased traffic to your site by “tricking” the search engines; they fail to mention the downside of these practices, however, which can include your site getting reported and even blacklisted.
Some of the more infamous Black Hat SEO tactics include:
- Keyword Stuffing - Articles that sound like a broken record because they’re jam-packed with keywords at the expense of good ad copy based on quality content.
- Polar Bear in a Snowstorm - White keyword text on white background meant to furtively overfeed the search engine spiders, a.k.a. cloaking.
- Linkspamming - Links placed sporadically anywhere and everywhere on the Internet to puff up perceived popularity.
- Data Mining - Using existing but slightly altered search engine results as page content
- Buying Expired Domains - For link retention.
- Doggie Doors - Throw-away landing pages using black hat techniques that search engine spiders can see but Web surfers cannot. They eventually get de-indexed by increasingly savvy search engine algorithms.
Don’t buy the snake oil. Seek to establish a legitimate and lasting Web presence and a loyal customer base over illusory rankings and temporary visibility. Quality traffic and legitimate search engine placement will always pay off in the long run when you’re marketing on the Internet.
-- Contributed by Derek Hoffmann
Posted Friday, May 29, 2009 by
WebVisible Team
4AM. I worked into the night, bleary and spent. I finished the email to our biggest customer of widgets in 14 states, CC:d to my supervisor and his boss. It contained the worst error I had ever made.
Colossal fail was lurking; my words would soon writhe and turn like a viper, stabbing their venom deep into my career. I pressed the SEND button, as my eyes were caught by the barb in the text. My failure showed clearly, but as I blinked again, it was done.
As I slumped, my mind reeled in horror. I had sent the MISTAKE of a lifetime! Late-night emailing was no excuse. I was finished at WidgeCo. I would never catch the message. It was gone. My race was run. Time to search some local Internet advertising for the nearest truck driving school.
But then, something beautiful happened. I had crafted a mail rule the week before - this quiet friend delayed all my outbound messages for three golden minutes. It even had a bypass - it would send immediately if the subject held three spaces in a row.
A ray of precious sunlight appeared through my windows as I smiled and clicked Outbox > Delete Message, I lived happily ever after, my mistake absolved with two minutes to spare.
Creating the 3-minute delay in Outlook 2007:
Colossal fail was lurking; my words would soon writhe and turn like a viper, stabbing their venom deep into my career. I pressed the SEND button, as my eyes were caught by the barb in the text. My failure showed clearly, but as I blinked again, it was done.As I slumped, my mind reeled in horror. I had sent the MISTAKE of a lifetime! Late-night emailing was no excuse. I was finished at WidgeCo. I would never catch the message. It was gone. My race was run. Time to search some local Internet advertising for the nearest truck driving school.
But then, something beautiful happened. I had crafted a mail rule the week before - this quiet friend delayed all my outbound messages for three golden minutes. It even had a bypass - it would send immediately if the subject held three spaces in a row.
A ray of precious sunlight appeared through my windows as I smiled and clicked Outbox > Delete Message, I lived happily ever after, my mistake absolved with two minutes to spare.
Creating the 3-minute delay in Outlook 2007:
- In Tools > Rules and Alerts, click 'New Rule.'
- Check 'Check messages after sending'. Click Next > Next
- Answer ‘This rule will be applied to every message you send’ with Yes
- Check 'Defer delivery by (a number of) minutes'
- Click (a number of) and select a number, 3 is good. Click OK > Next
- Check 'except if the subject contains (specific words)'
- Click (specific words). Press space 3 times and click Add.
- Click OK > Finish.
Posted Friday, May 29, 2009 by
WebVisible Team
A quick follow up to the earlier post this week about Microsoft's new search engine, Bing.
Perhaps it was a bit premature. Not on the name... that seems to stay in place (for now). But on the description of "search engine."
Correction, Microsoft is billing it as more than a search engine, but a "decision engine" - something that helps you sift through loads of information, organize it in a logical way to help make better informed decisions.
Looks pretty cool. Check out the video: http://www.decisionengine.com/Default.html
Perhaps it was a bit premature. Not on the name... that seems to stay in place (for now). But on the description of "search engine."
Correction, Microsoft is billing it as more than a search engine, but a "decision engine" - something that helps you sift through loads of information, organize it in a logical way to help make better informed decisions.
Looks pretty cool. Check out the video: http://www.decisionengine.com/Default.html
Posted Thursday, May 28, 2009 by
WebVisible Team
A customer recently asked me about the "meta tags" on her Web site. These are words hidden in your page’s content and used by search engine robots to understand your pages and choose the best placement in search results, so they are important to all business Web sites.
(Remember that the left-hand column on Google is non-pay-per-click or "organic" results; the right is pay-per-click (PPC) or "sponsored" results.) Meta tags are terms used in search engine optimization efforts to gain rankings in the organic results rather than the online advertising PPC area.
The Meta Description is a short paragraph or a few sentences, in natural language, to describe your page’s purpose. It should be tailored to each individual page on your site. Google uses this in many cases as the description of your page(s). About 155 characters fit into Google’s descriptions.
Meta Keywords form a list of the relevant words and terms on your page. Instead of giving you any length suggestions, I will advise that you use as many keywords as you need to capture the content of your page. Like mustard, more is better only up to a point -- use only the correct amount for best results.
Useful Tools for Generating Meta Tags
-- Contributed by Dan Lozano
(Remember that the left-hand column on Google is non-pay-per-click or "organic" results; the right is pay-per-click (PPC) or "sponsored" results.) Meta tags are terms used in search engine optimization efforts to gain rankings in the organic results rather than the online advertising PPC area.The Meta Description is a short paragraph or a few sentences, in natural language, to describe your page’s purpose. It should be tailored to each individual page on your site. Google uses this in many cases as the description of your page(s). About 155 characters fit into Google’s descriptions.
Meta Keywords form a list of the relevant words and terms on your page. Instead of giving you any length suggestions, I will advise that you use as many keywords as you need to capture the content of your page. Like mustard, more is better only up to a point -- use only the correct amount for best results.
Useful Tools for Generating Meta Tags
- Meta tag viewers will reveal the meta tags for the page address you input.
- Meta tag generators generate a good set of tags for the page you input.
- Your Web builder will need to insert these tags into your page if you are not sure how to edit your site.
- Search the Web for free tools. Stick with free online tools only, no need to download any software.
- Search for online meta tag viewer, meta tag generator, and so on. Bookmark the best resources.
- You can research your competition's choices and page content with these tools as well.
-- Contributed by Dan Lozano
Posted Wednesday, May 27, 2009 by
WebVisible Team
With a hurting search market share in April of 8.2 percent of U.S. searches (comScore), Microsoft is about to launch an $80-$100M advertising campaign hoping to gain market share with its new Bing search engine.
Ad Age says $80 million is a huge number for a consumer product launch. But Microsoft spends big bucks on advertising -- $361 million last year versus $25 million spent by Google (TNS Media Intelligence).
Bing is a revamp of Microsoft’s Live search engine and will be demonstrated at the D:All Things Digital conference May 26-28. This is a good opportunity to build buzz before its official launch in June.
Supposedly, Bing represents the proverbial light bulb that goes off in your head when you get a great idea. However, the name is still a rumor at this point. Microsoft frequently changes its mind, and has also hinted at Sift and Hook.
Nobody expects Bing to be a Google Killer, but since Microsoft’s market share is so low, it has nowhere to go but up, especially with the big rollout.
Bing is cute and memorable, which is part of what helped people remember Google. But what made people adopt Google was a clean interface and better search results. Now, the name is verb and synonymous with search. To catch on Bing will have to be really good because old habits are hard to break, no matter how much money is spent.
Ad Age says $80 million is a huge number for a consumer product launch. But Microsoft spends big bucks on advertising -- $361 million last year versus $25 million spent by Google (TNS Media Intelligence).
Bing is a revamp of Microsoft’s Live search engine and will be demonstrated at the D:All Things Digital conference May 26-28. This is a good opportunity to build buzz before its official launch in June.
Supposedly, Bing represents the proverbial light bulb that goes off in your head when you get a great idea. However, the name is still a rumor at this point. Microsoft frequently changes its mind, and has also hinted at Sift and Hook.
Nobody expects Bing to be a Google Killer, but since Microsoft’s market share is so low, it has nowhere to go but up, especially with the big rollout.
Bing is cute and memorable, which is part of what helped people remember Google. But what made people adopt Google was a clean interface and better search results. Now, the name is verb and synonymous with search. To catch on Bing will have to be really good because old habits are hard to break, no matter how much money is spent.
Posted Friday, May 22, 2009 by
WebVisible Team
The Microsoft adCenter Blog announced a Spring Upgrade designed to provide more control over targeting, bidding and distribution of online advertising campaigns.
Campaign Management
• Targeting Options: Online advertisers can employ customer targeting and incremental bids at the campaign level. Changes are designed to reduce bidding complexity and makes it faster to add new keywords.
• Improved Keyword Research Tools: Intended to help build more effective keyword lists and boost campaign performance.
New filters to refine list of suggested keywords
View performance and demographic data by keyword
Add selected keywords to your negative keyword list
Bid on keywords and review estimated performance data
Review keywords and bids and add them to an ad group
adCenter Desktop (beta)
• Performance: Increased amount of data can be managed to over 100,000 keywords per account, and speeds have been increased so you can work on one account while another uploads or downloads.
• City/State Targeting: Before, to update City or State targeting options, users had to be logged into adCenter online. Now, it can be done directly from the Desktop.
Content Ads
• Ad Distribution: New Web site Exclusion feature prevents Content Ads from being displayed on specific sites. Exclude up to 500 Web sites at the campaign or ad group level.
• Web Site Placements: Choose “bid type and ad distribution” options allowing Content Ads to be displayed on 1,000 Web sites in the Microsoft content network.
• Reporting: A Site performance report was added to check ad performance when using Web site placements bid type and ad distribution option.
• Site Exclusion: Exclude under-performing sites at the campaign and ad group level.
Campaign Management
• Targeting Options: Online advertisers can employ customer targeting and incremental bids at the campaign level. Changes are designed to reduce bidding complexity and makes it faster to add new keywords.
• Improved Keyword Research Tools: Intended to help build more effective keyword lists and boost campaign performance.
New filters to refine list of suggested keywords
View performance and demographic data by keyword
Add selected keywords to your negative keyword list
Bid on keywords and review estimated performance data
Review keywords and bids and add them to an ad group
adCenter Desktop (beta)
• Performance: Increased amount of data can be managed to over 100,000 keywords per account, and speeds have been increased so you can work on one account while another uploads or downloads.
• City/State Targeting: Before, to update City or State targeting options, users had to be logged into adCenter online. Now, it can be done directly from the Desktop.
Content Ads
• Ad Distribution: New Web site Exclusion feature prevents Content Ads from being displayed on specific sites. Exclude up to 500 Web sites at the campaign or ad group level.
• Web Site Placements: Choose “bid type and ad distribution” options allowing Content Ads to be displayed on 1,000 Web sites in the Microsoft content network.
• Reporting: A Site performance report was added to check ad performance when using Web site placements bid type and ad distribution option.
• Site Exclusion: Exclude under-performing sites at the campaign and ad group level.
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