After speaking with Google, this is not yet affecting rankings or quality score, but they said it will.  Straight from a product manager’s mouth.  He couldn’t tell me when – they need to evaluate, I’m sure.

But this is a useful thing to reinforcing CTR on a brand, not to mention owning more search engine result page real estate.  Thanks to social additions, my listing now pushes other sites below the fold even more than before.  If I own a few top listings, I can ultimately “black out,” or push a fourth or fifth under the fold:

Is it like Facebook’s Like button?  Definitely, especially since soon you’ll be able to add a +1 widget to your websites.  But this has something Facebook doesn’t have… the ability to “like” something in Google results.  That’s pretty big.

More info here.

Post from: Bill Sebald's Greenlane SEO 2.0 Blog

Google’s New +1 Product One-Ups Facebook’s Like Button

I remember it well, about 5 years ago, when it was released to AdWords. I could qualify the work I’ve been doing for an old eCcommerce employer. He was very ROI focused because he was, well, cheap (not at all generalizing a business who rightfully cares about revenue as cheap). This boss didn’t buy into internet marketing even though he was running an internet store. So this code – which I had to map cart variables too – helped me justified the good work I was doing in my job. While many industry peers were frustrated by the extra scrutiny they were getting, I was actually saved.

But conversion code isn’t everything. It’s not supposed to be. It has its place.

Online analytics is still really young. Now, we have great conversion tracking, and more advanced attribution modeling. But only a few years ago, it was all about impressions and CTR. Basic analytics told us a little of the story, and forced us to take chances. Now, with more of the story, I truly believe many of us find ourselves backed into an ROI corner in which we are afraid to press against. Did these better bullets make us cocky?

“Bullets are great. But you don’t win a war with firepower. It’s with strategy and tactics.”

I had three fortune cookies today with lunch, and this is what they said:

• All channels are not created equal
• Old school marketing isn’t dead, it’s been reinvented
• AdWords is advertising – a “piece” of marketing

I think for many conversion tracking created and atmosphere for marketers to worry about performance to the dollar versus creativity on the web. On the web, creativity is vital and clearly yields bigger results when you strike gold. Creativity with focus speaks to more segmented audiences, which we now know are even more plentiful than we did before the web. General analytics and demos let us focus on those audiences, but data on whether they convert on the last click does not tell the full story. It answers the immediate need of passing a report to your boss, but it doesn’t always lead to the lifetime value.

Marketing is, and should always be about risk taking. If you’re not taking risks, you’re playing on the same level as not hundreds, but hundreds of thousands of other tepid companies. Marketing is also about developing strategies as you build. Tying yourself to ROI alone hurts you in the long run if you’re the kind of company that needs to be competitive. If you disagree, are you really being effective marketers and doing the w0rk the internet demands? Is it our job to encourage options and opportunity? Or is our job to keep stay in a box?

Would love your opinions.

Post from: Bill Sebald's Greenlane SEO 2.0 Blog

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugliness Of Conversion Code

I understand maybe using it when there are no ads to place – which they do – but why give other clickable options that take away ad share?  Maybe Google’s last redesign was still too traditional after all?  Maybe they just don’t have enough space in this format to try everything they want.

Take a look at this search for Technorati.  See?  No ad – but there was one!  I just didn’t get a screen grab, and now can’t recreate it.  I hate that. So even if they were only testing something, I don’t understand the logic on this one.  I know as an AdWords advertiser, it makes me a little grumpy to have to compete with more noise in this column.

click for larger view

Keep your eyes open. Maybe they’ll go the Ask.com route after all?

Post from: Bill Sebald's Greenlane SEO 2.0 Blog

Google’s Still Playing With AdWords Column

If you didn’t hear, Bing and Yahoo have merged to a degree. Bing search will begin powering Yahoo.com’s search function. This merge also includes paid search (which is the real monetary motivator for this merger). The transition timelines are now out there.

Apparently it should be done between August and September.

Read more at Search Engine Roundtable.

Post from: Bill Sebald's Greenlane SEO 2.0 Blog

Yahoo Now Testing Bing Search Results

Granted, it’s a big SEO world out there.  Finding the right SEO tools is a little daunting.  I personally discover new tools all the time and abandon old tools just as often.  If I can find a tool that helps me with SEO and with paid search, I’m even happier.  For me, finding new SEO tools can be as addicting as finding new iPhone apps, bootlegs of Beatles shows, and a better cheesesteak.  I don’t know what it is about it.  I think it’s because each discovery helps me think a little differently about SEO, and provides a little visibility into potentially successful strategies.  It’s just a matter of keeping your eyes open and thinking outside the box.

So one SEO tool that I find really useful is from SEOquake (homepage).  I learned about them about 2 years ago because of their sweet Firefox plugin.  If you’re a Firefox user (and you should be for SEO… so many great plugins that you can’t get anywhere else), installing this plugin allows you to get instant snapshots on a site.  It’s the kind of data that helps see who you’re up against, and see if they’re worth studying for insight.  But I digress.  The SEOquake tool that really hooked me is SEMrush .  I used to use SEOdigger, which was a great tool for understanding what competitors are doing with AdWords, but SEMrush (which uses their technology) took it even further.

It’s not a free tool, BUT you get freebies with it.  I found that I liked what I was getting so much from just using the freebies that I upgraded.  Even if I’m not using it for paid search, I like to have paid search data.  It helps me decide the value of keywords for organic purposes.  SEMrush actually does the work ahead of time on their backend crawls, and pretty much store wait for you to ask for it.  Most services I’ve worked with would have to make you wait while they went and did the work.  SEMrush is unique because it’s on demand with no waiting.

Try it… I took this from their site.  If you want to see how your site ranks up (or your competitors), just go to SEMrush or change the domain in the URL string to your domain of choice.

Earn using your competitors’ experience

Even with these results, there’s a ton of insight you can find.  This opens up doors to a million keyword opportunities (if you think about it, that initial burst of ideas can be the most frustrating part sometimes).  I use this tool all the time in proposals or reporting, where I go to show a potential client missed opportunities.

Another tool I just found out about is SEOpivot .  Like SEMrush, it provides some free data and provides it on demand.  By having this data captured, it’s able to provide more information about where you rank now, potential traffic you’re missing, and what that traffic could look like if you go after (or optimize) other terms.  For a company that’s trying to forecast and understand what SEO can bring them, this is amazing insight.  This is on my radar to buy shortly.  I think the two tools can be used in tandem.  It’s good, good stuff.

Post from: Bill Sebald's Greenlane SEO 2.0 Blog

Tools To Help Learn From Competition

I don’t feel so alone anymore!  I know I have a couple local readers to my new blog.  Definitely check this out.

Post from: Bill Sebald's Greenlane SEO 2.0 Blog

Hey Philly – Search Camp Philly Sounds Groovy

In organic search results you may be competing with competitors that have several years’ head start, thousands of pages of optimized content, thousands of incoming links, and thousands of digital assets that they’ve distributed all over the Internet. But paid search (like Yahoo! Sponsored Search), using compelling ads and strong calls to action, can be used as a great equalizer to overcome any advantages they have in the algorithmic results.

Let’s read into the questions and comments these kinds of statements project to readers:  “So give up on SEO! “, “Buy your way to the top! “, “You can’t beat competitors who are years ahead”, etc. Really?  Is this good advice?  Uh, no. I think this paragraph is a little over-targeted, but then again, look at the source. The truth is, good SEO can beat these aged sites by creating authority. Engines care about new, timely information dissemination. Engines care about user value. Engines are adapting to the idea of sorting out the stale, trusted content from the new and pertinent content.

Don’t get me wrong – paid search has its place and power. I would never knock it.  But in my opinion, SEO, when done right and constantly tag-teaming with paid search, is the only attack plan. Monitoring the ebb and flow is key, but so is recognizing the full capacity of SEO as it really is today, and not necessarily believing the impressions the Yahoo Search Marketing Blog is providing.

Post from: Bill Sebald's Greenlane SEO 2.0 Blog

Does Yahoo’s SEM Blog Have An Agenda?