Online Marketing Blog

Look for a resurgence in organic search engine optimization and a move away from SEO “trickery” as search engines move to place more value on what a Web page is about rather than how it is linked to other pages and sites on the Internet. The ideas and information on a page - a Web page’s “content” - are going to matter more and more, rather than the page’s architecture and the links that connect it to the wider Internet, as search engines vie to better “understand” what a Web page is about and rank its relevancy to the end user.

The big push is on to understand the “semantics” of a page, trying to digitally comprehend the keywords and concepts of a Web page’s content and ranking them in their relevance to the end user - the person behind his or her keyboard or phone pad keying in search queries.

The debut of Cuil.com, the newest search engine and would-be challenger to industry leader Google, underscores the shift in how search engines now, and will, search and understand a page’s content. Specifically, the team of world leading search engineers that banded together to build the new Cuil search engine claim not only that Cuil (pronounced “cool”) will index a much bigger portion of the individual pages on the Internet, but that they will emphasize the content on the pages rather than the links on the Internet that point to a specific page. (The link structure pointing to a specific Web page indicates its popularity, and hence the reasoning goes, its relevance to the end user. The number of inbound links is a critical part of industry leader Google’s PageRank methodology.)

“Rather than rely on superficial popularity metrics,” according to the new-kid-on-the-search-engine-block, “Cuil searches for and ranks pages based on their content and relevance. When we find a page with your keywords, we stay on that page and analyze the rest of its content, its concepts, their inter-relationships and the page’s coherency.”

“In addition to looking at the popularity of a Web page,” reports the Wall Street Journal, “Cuil also analyzes the concepts on the page and their relationships - grouping similar results under different menus.” Grouping different results under different concept-specific search result menus implies a much deeper understanding of the concepts and interrelationships on the individual Web page, rather than a mere ranking in terms of a “relevancy” that is determined in large part by a page’s popularity based on its links to other pages.

For businesses engaged in online marketing, the move toward a more “semantic” understanding of their Web page content will mean that their search engine optimization strategies will have to focus more and more on finding an SEO company that will help them produce the quality content that will make their organic search engine optimization strategy a success. Using so-called “ethical” search engine optimization techniques and building relevant pages with quality content and information for the end user will increasingly distinguish companies whose SEO and online marketing campaigns are a long-term success from those who look for the quick-fix and short-term boost in rankings brought about by using SEO techniques that are less organic to artificially boost the relevancy of their pages to their target audience.

You may be able to “game” the search engines for a while, but ultimately you cannot game the end users who always know whether the results a search engine displays are relevant to what it is they are looking for. The ability to “game” the search engines will, of course, decrease as they are better able to, and rely more upon, a semantic understandings of the Web’s content. To the extent that new search engine Cuil is better able to conceptually understand and sort the content of the hundreds of billions of web pages that are on the Internet - a number that grows by several billion each day - they may have a shot at making a dent in goliath Google’s market share.

There is no quick-fix key to online marketing success. Yet, with time and effort utilizing ethical search engine optimization techniques will improve your web site’s ranking and drive more web traffic to your company’s web site. But, the concept to stress here is ethical SEO techniques.

Search engines are all premised on providing their users with the information and web pages that are most relevant to the search query that users type into the search interface. Google’s famed “Don’t Be Evil” corporate ethos restated for SEO-types is: “Don’t rig the system to rank less relevant pages.”

There are a number of “quick-fixes” for web pages and web sites that do not rank well for keyword terms on Google and the other search engines. The downside of such “quick-fixes” - keyword stuffing, cloaking, hidden text, paid and dubious links etc. - is that sooner or later (most often, sooner) the search engines will clue into such well-known “Black Hat” SEO tactics, resulting in a permanent banning of the offensive website, or at least a temporary de-listing until the offensive and misleading tweaks are removed from the site. And Google, Yahoo! and the other search engines reserve a contractual right to de-list a site in their Terms of Service.

The Internet is the much-touted “Information Super Highway”. The price for claiming your roadside frontage is creating relevant content that users are looking for online. There are a raft of “White Hat” techniques that will attract web traffic and users to your website, but each of these requires a sustained effort to create relevant content and link structures. While such “White Hat” or ethical SEO techniques - blogging, article writing, participation in relevant forums and directories - take more effort and time to build a site’s relevancy, their effect is much longer lasting and you do not run the risk of having your site shut down peremptorily as a result of trying to game the system. In a “Don’t be Evil” world, “Content is King”, and the creation of quality content and relevant inbound links to your site is the hallmark of ethical and effective SEO and online marketing.

An interesting study about the effectiveness of online marketing versus traditional print and TV advertising was recently released “across the pond” in the United Kingdom. The Internet Advertising Bureau, the internet marketing industry’s trade association in the U.K., released a “Brand Engagement” study that shows online advertising for retail brands is the biggest driver for brand awareness in the current medias mix, “driving 40% of brand engagement, compared with press (31%) and TV (19%).”

These numbers highlight the overall effectiveness of relatively low cost internet advertising versus traditional media to raise product and brand awareness, when one considers the return on investment of the much smaller advertising budgets for online marketing. “The average online ad spend for all five brands in the study was just 2.5% of total media budget,” notes the IAB, “which suggests that internet advertising – which delivered 40% of brand engagement across all communications – is around 16 times more effective than the monetary investment would suggest.” The IAB’s research results regarding the effectiveness of online branding in the British retail sector were in line with, or exceeded, similar results in the British automotive, beverage and personal care sectors.

The research from the IAB in the U.K. seems equally applicable in North America, where the increasing sophistication of internet users and ever-improving technology is a driver which is increasing both internet use and the effectiveness of online marketing.

Yet, while study after study reports the increasing effectiveness of online marketing campaigns and internet advertising as marketing tools, as with any newly emerging technology, there is a lag in companies fully adopting the technology’s potential. “Whilst consumers’ online shopping spend continues to grow year-on-year,” notes Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the IAB, “there still remains a great discrepancy in terms of how much retailers are spending on their internet communications. We hope that this latest Brand Engagement study will help retail advertisers fully appreciate the brand-building capabilities of online, and in turn increase the medium’s share of their marketing budgets.”

Yellowpages.ca is increasing online Yellow Pages advertising rates between 10-25% depending on the type of yellowpages.ca ad you are purchasing.

The substantial increase in rates further indicates that YPG may have held on to the golden ticket a little too long. In an article I wrote on print Yellow Pages advertising last week, I mentioned that YPG had expertly handled the transition from print to online advertising till now, however, I believe that they have underestimated the velocity at which advertisers will move to internet products, like Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Yellowpages.ca (YPG) has managed to hold off the exodus from print for a number of reasons that include their bundling of print and internet products, their feet on the ground in Canada and the fact that we are just too small a market for anyone to care. Otherwise, they would be getting hammered as most major US Yellow Pages publishers are right now.

This latest price increase leads me to believe that YPG now understands that when the print takes a hit, it won’t be a 1-2% drop. We will be looking at more serious numbers. The fact that the economy is in the dumpster will only add fuel to the fire.

Then there is the elephant in the room. Google has the band width and determination to develop the killer app that could make Yellow Pages advertising an afterthought at any given time. It is not what we know Google is doing, its what we don’t know.

As for the small business owners who are constantly being bombarded with the multitude of options; There may be a learning curve when it comes to search engine marketing but you need to get on board or get run over by their competitors.

Online marketing and Internet advertising are being recognized as a real and significant means to tap into the growing presence of consumers online. It is now recognized that despite a drop in U.S. consumer confidence and a none-too-healthy U.S. economy, there will nonetheless be double-digit growth in the money businesses are spending to advertise their products and services online.

Online advertising will grow by 20% this year, increasing from $19.9 billion in 2007 to $23.8 billion by the end of 2008, according to the latest market research released by JupiterResearch. This, at a time when a slumping U.S. economy is dragging down economic growth across much of North America and Europe. Traditional advertising, meanwhile, is forecast to grow only 4% in 2008.

These growth numbers highlight the importance of online marketing and Internet advertising to a burgeoning e-commerce sector. The current issue of Newsweek features an article on “A Second Coming of the Dot-Coms” which traces the growing shift of real and not speculative dollars online. Quite rightly, Newsweek attributes the resurrection of e-commerce in large part to the fact that “the majority (or at least a sizable minority) of the population in key markets like the United States, Europe and Asia now has access to broadband connections.”

The double-digit growth in ad spending online should highlight the importance of having an effective online marketing platform for businesses large and small. Without a planned online marketing strategy and a web site that is optimized so that search engines like Google can find and read it, small businesses and growth businesses cannot compete online. Large companies are pouring millions into Internet advertising campaigns that are dominating the bandwidth consumers are tapping into with sophisticated web sites and platforms that use the latest and most effective search engine optimization techniques to dominate their markets. Fortunately, the Internet is nothing if not democratic and small companies and growth businesses can effectively market their products and services and find their niche online using the same techniques and strategies as the largest companies and online players.

How effective is online marketing in driving business to your company? Just how important is it to have an effective website that customers and potential customers can find and use to research the products and services you sell? Very effective - and very important - according to survey results recently released by Opinion Research Corporation.

Almost two-thirds of the respondents (61%) polled in June of 2008 reported “consulting online reviews, blogs and other sources of online customer feedback before purchasing a new product or service.” Search engines like Google or Yahoo!, quite naturally, were the preferred method for respondents conducting online searches.

These results from Opinion Research Corp. confirm recently released consumer numbers from JupiterResearch that show consumers spend $6 on offline purchases influenced by their online research for every dollar that they spend online. An effective online marketing presence in the form of a web page or website that is optimized so that search engines like Google can find and index your business site is quickly becoming a business must as more and more consumers are doing their window shopping online. Effective online marketing and Internet advertising are now business critical issues, particularly for large and small companies dealing in products and services in highly competitive marketplaces.

Opinion Research Corporation ranked the product and services categories that were researched the most online by their respondents in the following order:

Travel/Recreation/Leisure 82%
Electronic goods 80%
Household products/services 66%
Clothing 55%
Automotive 55%
Personal care 40%
Food 24%

June 24, 2008 - The growing importance of online marketing to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) was re-emphasized again today in a new report released by JupiterResearch. The report emphasizes the growing importance of online marketing not just for SMBs conducting their business online or heavily invested in e-commerce, but for all SMBs.

The numbers show that consumers’ online research habits are having a huge spillover effect onto their offline shopping habits. “For every $1 online users spent online in 2007,” JupiterResearch notes, “they spent roughly $6 on off-line purchases that were influenced by online research.”

While a storefront presence is still necessary to capture foot traffic for most SMBs, the exponential rise in the number of potential customers using Internet search – particularly, local search and mobile search – to make products and services choices should make capturing web traffic a similar priority for SMBs. The JupiterResearch numbers show that more and more consumers are “Windows” shopping, as well as window shopping.

The growing numbers of consumers who are surfing the Internet to make their product choices indicate that Internet advertising and establishing an effective online marketing presence are already business-critical issues of importance to all SMBs – and that importance is only likely to rise.

Exploiting consumer demand for videocsting and online videos on YouTube is the next challenge for those in the online marketing and Internet advertising industries.

Media polling firm, Ipsos-MediaCT, reports a drop in the percentage of time active Internet users – i.e., those who have ever downloaded a video from the internet - spend watching video on TV from 75% in February 2007 to 70% in February 2008. This is highly significant when one considers that “about half of all Internet users aged 12 and up have streamed a video file online in the past 30 days,” according to Ipsos’ research.

As YouTube’s owner, Google moves to capitalize on the video sharing site it purchased for $1.65 billion in 2005, its investment is paying off. Forbes.com, the online branch of the magazine that specializes in tracking wealth and riches, estimates that YouTube’s billion-plus views per day will garner Google $200 million in revenue in 2008, and a further $350 million in 2009. There may be even more upside to this, as Google moves to allow its “content partners”, primarily indie film makers, to upload 1 gigabyte video clips the size of feature length films to YouTube. Longer clips will mean more advertising opportunities and additional revenue.

The growing importance of video as a tool and medium for online marketing and Internet advertising is seen in the search results on the main search engines where YouTube videos are beginning to consistently rank on relevant key word terms. The rise of video and the importance of YouTube as an online advertising platform is only likely to expand as Google has made figuring out how to monetize and make YouTube pay off one of its top goals for 2008.

Recent Canadian newspaper coverage highlights the growing impact that mobile search will have on online marketing as stories about the release of Apple’s new 3G iPhone and Roger’s Communication’s Inc.’s proposed new cellphone plans hit the wires.

It is expected that it will be easier and cheaper for Canadians to conduct mobile searches on the Internet from their mobile phones as Roger’s Communications is set to roll out new mobile broadband packages to support the “slew of new data-heavy mobile devices” that Roger’s is set to release, reports the National Post.

Of course, one of these “new data-heavy mobile devices” is the latest model of Apple’s 3G iPhone, that Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, unveiled to the world on June 10th. “The new, thinner phone will go on sale in 22 countries on July 11 and run on third-generation, or 3G, wireless networks that deliver Internet content at least two times faster than the prior model,” according to Mr. Jobs, who publicly unveiled the new iPhone for the first time at the Apple’s developer conference held in San Francisco. Roger’s has secured Canadian rights to the new iPhone when it is released in Canada, the United States and around the world on July 11th.

The ability of consumers to easily conduct mobile searches online from their handheld devices will be greatly enhanced with the next-generation iPhone, and companies – from small businesses to the largest multinationals – are taking note and preparing themselves for what is predicted to be a new wave of customers increasinbly using mobile search and local search to locate the products and services they are looking for. These developments only highlight the importance of online marketing to a company’s bottom-line as Apple, RIM, Nokia and their competitors roll out new products to tap consumer demand for mobile search capabilities.

As online marketing and advertising begin to outstrip traditional advertising media - TV, radio and print -  as the medium that will drive customers to their office or storefront (whether that is a digital online office or storefront on a company’s web page, or the old-fashioned ‘bricks-and-mortar’ variety) businesses, large and small, are grappling with how to advertise and market their products and services online and what is the most effective way to do this. 

David Wei, CEO for Alibaba.com, a leading website providing business-to-business (or B2B) networking and connectivity, has observed that, “Going global has never been easier and more affordable for a small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME), especially from the relative comfort of one’s own factory, shop or home office.”  

Mr. Wei notes that, the “Internet has ushered in new tools to bring trading partners together using search engines, portals and online marketplaces.”  Mr. Wei notes that online marketing and B2B marketplaces like Alibaba.com are replacing traditional marketing venues like  trade shows, catalogues and trade associations, just as internet advertising is gradually replacing traditional print, TV and radio as source for advertising placements.

 Importantly, Alibaba.com’s CEO, points out the choice that all businesses, particularly small-to-medium sized enterprises (or SMEs), must face when taking their advertising and marketing campaigns online, or starting up a fresh marketing campaign, is whether to channel time, money and effort into paid advertising and marketing (the banner ads, and pay-per-click sponsored ads on Googl or Yahoo! etc.), or whether to invest those resources in organic marketing.

Pay-per-click has its place and a company can bid and pay for advertising spots, just like it would do for TV and other old media ads, but pay-per-click has its limitations.   “A search engine is more consumer-traffic driven with no budget guarantee,” Mr. Wei suggests, “so costs can accumulate without any reasonable assurance of sales. There is also a serious global issue of click fraud, whereby competitors click repeatedly to increase your pay-per-click advertising costs.”  ”At this time,” Mr. Wei says, “there is no known solution that can eliminate 100% of click fraud.”  With pay-per-click it can thus become difficult to know that you are paying for what you get.

The alternative to pay-per-click is to market and advertise online using the internet’s organic search capabilities to get your products and services noticed and ranked at the top of the search engines’ results page. There is nothing like having your site appear “above-the-fold”, so to speak, on the Google results page for the key words that describe your business to drive sales. While this is not “paid advertising” per se, there are definite costs in terms of the aforementioned resources of “time, money and effort” that an SME will need to expend building an effective online marketing campaign organically.

Mr Wei’s advice for small-to-medium sized enterprises is, that “it is best to have someone in-house with keyword marketing expertise. Otherwise, you should consider using marketing firms which have a proven success rate of getting companies to rank higher in search results.”

Sound advice. But even if an SME tries to build an in-house capability for online marketing, how can the business influencer or decision-maker be assured that the person they are looking to hire has the search engine optimization expertise to successfully orchestrate a full online marketing campagn, particularly if one’s marketing mix is to use both pay-per-click and organic search engine optimization? The answer may be to test the online marketing waters first and take your online marketing and online advertising campaigns to a company whose search engine optimization specialists have organic and pay-per-click experience.