Search Evangelist

So, what is your domain name worth?

Posted on by searchology

Recently the Huffington Post posted an article on The 11 Most Expensive Domain Names purchased thus far in our very short world wide web history. I do not find it all that out of whack when you consider the search volumes for terms like;

  • Vodka.com (sold for $3 million) – estimated Google global search volume for “vodka” – 5 million last month
  • Business.com (sold for $7.9 million in 1999) – estimated Google global search volume for “business” – 151 million
  • Toys.com (sold for $5.1 million in 2009) – estimated Google global search volume for “toys” – 124 million
  • Beer.com (sold for $7 million in 2004) – estimated Google global search volume for “beer” – 24.9 million
  • Casino.com (sold for $5.5 million in 2003) – estimated Google global search volume for “casino” – 24 million

While these number are astounding, it is all about the potential traffic and relavancy of the keywords located within the URL. A good domain name can go a long when when trying to reach potential website visitors. When picking a domain name consider critical keywords which you would like to rank well for and see if those domain names are available. Try different variations of your desired domain name and you may get lucky.

My guess is most domain names that have potentially high traffic potential are gone. Domain buying is, I believe, a pretty cool business but an evil business. Domain name buyers hold out on good domain names to make a profit. Pure and simple. Much like waving the golden carrot in front of a potential business owner. If you are willing to pay, you can get the domain name you want [unless it’s not being used].

If you have a domain name you want there are a few tools which can give you an estimation of what it’s worth. Check out EstiBot.com or Valuate.com to find your own domain worth. Who knows, you may sell it one day for ONE BILLION DOLLARS.

Google Is Brining The Hammer Down on QA

Posted on by searchology

I’ve had some new business join my growing client roster recently. This of course is a good thing…however the one of the primary complaints is ads not showing up in Ad Words for poor quality scores. I have a simple formula I’d like to share…and if you have read the Google Ad Words guidelines you will find that what I recommend is not much different than what Google already recommends.

Here is my formula for higher quality scores with Google Ad Words.

Keywords + ad copy + landing page = higher quality score

Sure its simple and pretty straight forward. However, if you have too many products or services and are trying to push too many paid search keywords through the same page without marketing some type of lading page adjustments your quality score will suffer. Here are some other pointers for higher quality scores.

  • Build a unique landing page for each major ad group or each major PPC campaign
  • If possible try and buy a URL which is relevant to the ad group, keywords, and ad copy
  • Make forms easy to fill out for newsletters, sign ups, etc.
  • Make sure to use some of your primary keywords in your page copy, H tags, and title tags
  • Use keyword insertion option in your ad copy

These should be some good steps to get you headed in the right direction. These tips will help you in Yahoo search marketing as well. Until the BIG Yahoo and BING merge. I do hope that Microsoft takes all of the great work Yahoo has done over the years and keeps the people and the kick butt technology. Only time will tell. But in the meantime, these tips will help on Yahoo Search Marketing. Thanks for reading.

SEO Link Building – The new Pet Rock

Posted on by searchology

Remember the Pet Rock…its back

I’ve been working as an online marketing professional for 8 years and have seen the web change many times over. For those of us deeply involved in providing excellent service to clients in the search engine optimization disciplines and search marketing arenas, online marketing is a constantly moving target. Over the past few years (around 2 to be exact) I’ve noticed search engine optimization has become much less about quality content and more of a popularity contest.

I believe most of us in the search engine optimization line of work would agree link building is one of the most difficult things to do. To some extent, it is almost a necessary evil needed to achieve higher search engine ranking and Google PageRank. I have read tomes of material on link building and its impact on website ranking and I’ve come to the realization that something is just not right with that.

Back in the early days, content was king, the better and more relevant the content of your site and its match to keyword queries, the greater the opportunity to rank well for those terms. The issue turned into too many individuals using black hat techniques to fool the search engines, turning the need for good content into a popularity contest.

You can put this into context by thinking of the 1970’s cultural fad toy, the Pet Rock. Pet Rocks, much like link building, can be left alone and if your content is good enough, the links will follow. Or you can try and build links (feed your Pet Rock) and witness a whole lot of frustration because not all links are equal. Thus, feed your Pet Rock all you like and you will find the rock is still a rock. Feed your website tons of links and it is still what you have originally create (good content or bad content).

The major difference in my potentially pathetic analogy to the Pet Rock is if you feed thousands of links to your site you gain popularity, traffic, and love from the search engines you still have a Pet Rock for a website without good content. With so many Pet Rock websites out there…where is the justification in popularity over well written and useful content? How can so many well written websites be passed over by simple link popularity? How is this fair?

I’ve run across countless websites with little search engine optimization and less than 200 words on a page which have been ranked highly for keywords and Google PageRank scores. With light content and little relevancy to keywords…what are the search engines looking at? Link popularity, like the Pet Rock, has stormed the SEO nation.

Truth be told, I like the Pet Rock. It’s cool, funny, creative, and I think it should be revised and put back on the market. However, awarding higher natural rankings to websites with little content and useful information is unjust. I believe the search engines are going to figure this out as well.

Links do not justify killer rankings. Yes, they should be a factor in overall website ranking but should not play the part as a primary singular deciding factor in the SERPs. Killer content still rules and it should. Those that take the time, effort, and countless revisions to get it just right should be at the top not those digging for every last blog to leave a bogus post.

I do hope that we will return to content as king of SEO. It keeps you on your toes and makes you consider your audience, audience profiles, needs of website visitors, and how really good content can offer really good things to those who are searching. Relevancy is what it is all about.

History teaches us a lot if we pay attention to it. Popularity has, historically, put the wrong individuals in charge of nations and had devastating results. Putting links in charge of website rankings is punishing for both proactive searching individuals and website owners. Links are devastating to those websites who really offer something special and unique to those searching.

I am certain there will be blow back from those who are proficient in link building to my article. Yes, I deserve it to some extent…but I produce well written content and I believe content will make a comeback as it should, just like the Pet Rock.

To Thine Own Self Be True in SEO

Posted on by Alton Duderstadt

In a recent SEO article by Mark Jackson he discussed the importance of learning the baselines for search engine optimization. I took it to mean be true to yourself by learning before buying SEO services. Search engine optimization is an important aspect to any solid online marketing effort and your basic understanding of how and why SEO is key to your success. I think most business owners know what SEO is but may have a very hard time explaining it.

Search engine optimization is gaining higher rank in the search engines by optimizing your website for keywords. As Mark stated in his article, SEO is not about getting to the top page or number one position for keywords you want to rank well for. SEO is about driving higher quality traffic to your site which converts into sales or new customers. I believe there is a major shift in the way professionals envision SEO. The pendulum has swung from the need for top ten positions to quality traffic.

It is important to understand that keywords you want to rank well for may have significant competition and could range in the millions for search results. This is the real shift I am talking about. Consider the word “pizza” which produces 125,000.000 results on Google. Is it realistic to achieve top ranking for this keyword? No, it is not. The competitive nature of online optimization is just that…extremely competitive. To rank well for just one very popular word is very difficult and it is not realistic to think that high raking can be achieved for such words.

Your education about search engine optimization needs to rooted in one simple reality. Your most important keywords may have too many competitors to rank well for in a short term. The longer your website is living on the web the better chance it will have but it is a long term commitment on your part, as a business owner, and on the part of the individual or firm working to optimize your site.

This does not mean that targeting your primary keywords is out of the question…it simply means extending your keyword search beyond the heavy sought after keywords. Find a middle ground and start from there. You search firm or consultant should be aware of this and set the expectations with you regarding keyword popularity. Which brings me to another point in helping you become educated on SEO…if it sounds too good to be true avoid it.

There are some SEO firms who will promise you the world and charge $10,000 per month or more for SEO. I do not believe [any longer] that SEO is a monthly process. Yes, to some extent SEO is a monthly process for link building, article writing, blogs, etc. These items can be done mostly on the client side and should not be paid for [save the link building]. Many of the aspects of SEO can be done by you [the client] if you are willing to participate in your own success [more on this later].

In closing, SEO can be a very long process which can take several months to attain better quality traffic. Lean as much as you can and there is no such thing as a stupid question. The more you know about natural website ranking the more you will work to help the process and understand why you pay what you pay. The more you know about SEO the more you can base your assumptions in reality and not be taken in by false SEO sales pitches. The closer you will come to the truth about SEO and how it can help change your online business.

Pay Per Click Advertising and the Client Role

Posted on by Alton Duderstadt

When you hire on a searchologist or Internet marketing firm to work on your pay per click campaign…you may never know the true importance of your input. Professional search engine marketers [searchologists] bring their knowledge of how to set up, run, create and track pay per click efforts. The knowledge you bring to the table is just as important to the success of the paid search marketing as the information and knowhow professionals offer.

As a professional in your particular market or industry, you will have more insight into what you are looking for and who you are trying to reach out to with pay per click advertising. You will have great insight regarding keywords, demographics, consumer profiles, and prospect profiles. This information you already have about these variables and more will impact the outcome of all paid search marketing.  

Be sure to share as much as you can about who you are targeting, what the profile of a “typical” audience member may look like [age, household income, male, female, etc.]. Having detailed discussions with your Internet marketing firm or consultant can save time, money, and trouble in the long run.

Google Personalized Search…just got personal

Posted on by Alton Duderstadt

Google has announced the Google personalized search experience. If any of you are keeping tabs out there…universal search, personal search, social search, real time search…this is why search engine optimization can be very difficult. Imagine trying to keep up with Google. I’m still not 100% sold on Google’s “do no evil” message.

I’ve been working on a client project recently and I’ve notices some VERY lame attempts by Google to lure away searching individuals with rather unsavory methods. The same methods that Google frowns on when advertising under competitive brand terms in Ad Words [to a very liberal extent]. Take a test drive for yourself. Type in “circle” for giggles. Take a look at the paid search results on the left side. Do you or do you not see a sponsored ad by Google asking if you are having trouble understanding the word ‘circle’.

So, what does this have to do with search results and all of the up coming iterations of said results? At some point search engine results need to become better at indexing and serving GOOD content. I’ve seen thousands of times now…very poor results based on excellent search terms. I think it could speak to the measure of fairness when dealing with the world’s biggest search engine.

Go on and Google pay per click advertising and tell me you don’t see Google’s ad right up at the top. They are just playing fair right…? Right?

Hearding The Social Media Cats

Posted on by Alton Duderstadt

I a fantastic post by Rebecca Lieb, “Here Come The Social Media Carpetbaggers” from Clicks, she discusses the hoard of social media experts who have come streaming out of the wood work with proposals in had and “expert banners” waving. I’ve said for some time now that social media should be taken in stride and should not be used to generate sales of any type. Sure, if sales “accedently” or unintentionally arise from social media marketing…that is a wonderful thing. If your objective is to accomplish this task it is going to end up a major epic fail.

I find it as amazing as Rebecca does, how everyone and their distant uncle can now execute, build, track, and offer bright shiney success stories about how well they have done for their clients with social media. Much like Rebecca’s comments, I firmly believe that if you are going to pursue social media you should do it in house. The cost in human hours to build out social media outlets, run comments, and interact with your auduience can be a very large task.

Don’t believe all you hear about how wonderful and magical social media is. It is what it is…a way for people to communicate online with each other. It is not a new toy or marketing outlet for you to make your next fortune. The majority of individuals on social networks are there to interact with each other, their friends, family, and grow networks. If you REALLY want to interrupt that interaction with ads, or annoying pokes into their “social webworking” I would hazard to say that you will be engaging in demanding your message is heard and it will backfire.

As I’ve said many times over now…social media, if used as a tool to allow for communication, idea exchanges, developing brand awarness, and credibility can crate a special relationship that will pay you back in the long term. Be wary of the salesperson who suggests a large investment in the social media space. If you are going to take the leap…get your goals, expectations, and self in check.

Social media is still very new [about 2 years old now] and Internet marketing is around 12 years old. We are still dealing with a new digital era. Social media should not be confused with direct advertising…social media is a communication tool and not an advertising tool. Use it wisely and you will prosper…force you message and it will come back to haunt you.

Top Ten Search Engine Marketing Expectations – Busted Part 1

Posted on by Alton Duderstadt

Many business owners I have spoken to have had great expectations about search engine optimization, pay per click, and social media. With this in mind…I wanted to address the reality of what search can do for your business and how you should REALLY prepare. Here is a quick list of Top Ten Search Engine Marketing Expectations Busted by Searchology 101.

1. No one can get you to the top of Google for your top keywords overnight. Search engine optimization takes time…and it can take months to gain higher raking on important keywords.

2. Search engine optimization professionals don’t know the “Google Code” to get you to the top of the Google search results. The Google algorithms are a mystery to all but Google. Most SEO professionals know a great deal to get you better natural search results but can’t promise top listings for high search terms.

3. The social media craze is not the new search. Yes, social media is very cool and it makes it very easy to stay in touch…but it is not a tool to drive sales. It should be used to build your brand, build brand awarness, offer consideration for purchase…if you intend to use it to build sales…think again.

4. Pay per click advertising is not “wizzbangery” – there is no little man behind the green curtain. It takes time to get keywords and ad copy to work together. Time to let the search engines assess the work and for the paid search professional to do their job.

5. Google is not the only search engine out there. Yahoo has over 420 million searches every day…and Bing is close behind. There are many more search engines which deliver good results as well.

6. You should always advertise under your brand name. You competitors will do it if they can and you need to take full ownership of your message, product, service, and good name.

7. Google analytics isn’t always right. Looks like there may be a pretty big issue with Java and Google analytics.

8. Know your market and know your audience. If you don’t have a good idea about the profiles of people and visitors you would like to attract to your website…how can you write content for them?

9. Google recently had a 10 year anniversery [this year] so when you hear “professionals” say they’ve been in the Internet marketing industry for 20 years. Yahoo was founded in 1995…Google Ad Words launched in October 2000.

10. Advertising using your competitors brand terms is okay…just be prepared for retaliation.

Competition – How far do you go?

Posted on by Alton Duderstadt

I’ve been asked many times over the years…”So, how can I go after my competition? Can I use their name(s) in my ads? Can I go after their keywords?” These are vary tough questions to answer and very easy questions to ask. To give you the very simple answer. No, do not go after your online competitors online by using or marketing under their own company or brand names. My reason, do you like it when they do the same to you?

I have had a few lawyers in my day contact my peers to have them cease all online marketing under competitive brand terms. I’ve personally witnessed red faced lawyers screaming through the phone swearing a holy judgment and legal action to the end of days because of using branded terms and company names to display ads and market online.

To most individuals that are online marketers or searchologists…I say don’t do it. Your competitors will figure it our sooner or later and return the favor and you are not going to like it one bit.  To my clients I say don’t do it because you may end up starting a bidding war or a minor legal battle which will not be worth the time.

However, it’s gone beyond the pale these days. Yes, now I’ve seen it all. I know it’s been going on for a long time but I’ve never EVER have believed it until I saw it with mine own eyes. There are companies out there so brasien as to add their competitors keywords and brand names in search engine optimiztion keywords.

Yes, there is an upside when it comes to pay per click advertising under competitive brand names and terms. This is a little more acceptable…especially when the tables have been turned on you or your client in the first place. Then yes, it is a little about revenge and it is a lot about solid ROI at a lower cost per lead or sale. But when you start throwing stones at glass and add these terms into your own website and page copy…you’ve simply gone way to far. Too far.

Yes, there are companies and individuals willing to support adding in other competitive brand terms and names into their page descriptions and title tags. Yes, it has come to this. It is a wonder why some companies and individuals involved in search engine optimization and search engine marketing have crappy reputations. Sure, it is not just about redicously high prices…the other reason they have MUD for a name is due to ADDING COMPETITIVE TERMS INTO SEO PRATICES!

As I mentioned…to use other compeitive terms and names in pay per click can be acceptable under optimal circumstances…but I do not like the pratice and have only done so under extreme situations. Never, would I nor should you work with…an search engine optimization company or pay per click service provider which recommends doing so first thing out of the gate. Run, and keep going. It is a very bad practice and frankly, rude. As I said…would you want your competition to do it to you? No, then don’t start a nasty cycle. Life can be difficult enough. Let’s all try to be a little nicer and possibly we can learn how to get along just a little better when we market on the Internet.

Google is Going Social

Posted on by Alton Duderstadt

An article recently released on Informationweek.com, Google plans to tackle the social search. Soon Google Labs will allow Google account holders to open new accounts and allow their social information to become integrated into Google search results. My first knee-jerk reaction is; oh, boy, here we go…social media is going way beyond the boundaries of providing information up to the second…that is…information ON YOU.

My second reaction [the other knee], was…I’m going to be the first to sign up for this one. Who knows how much will be served and indexed? Will I [we] be able to choose which social channels are posted? Or will it be all for one and one for all?

Once my initial ‘shock’ was over…this is not a surprising move. The search is all about search results based on keywords, lightning fast and accurate. Why not include ALL the information about your personal life and social life?

Consider how much fun it will be explaining to a future client or employer how an erotic monkey got on your Facebook page. When you get tagged with a photo or video…it does not exist in a location where you can alter it. It exists on the posters site and shows up on your profile. Will this type of garbage show up in the SERPS?

The issue really comes down to this: if you are socially adept online and in person this can be a very good thing. I may provide credibility, link juice, added content and it would be kind of cool to say, “Google me.” However, all things are not created equal. Well, without a question social graces are not learned and executed equally by all people. You can control what you say but you can’t control what others say or tag about you on various sites.

Will this lead to some type of consistant need to survey and monitor all of your social profiles? Could be the case. Then again, you don’t have to participate. But this is the shot across the bow, social media is going to go just one step too far and invade our social networks and channels. This is going to be a really interesting ride kids. Bring your Scooby Doo lunch box and an extra snack.