In The Trenches is a weekly spotlight of tips, tricks, and news about the tools search engine marketing professionals use to give them a leg up on the competition. Today: news from the search engines, today’s in-depth look: search stats you need to know (August 2008), not-so-light reading: the bible of the search industry, and this week’s free tips and tools. News from the search engines Google AdWords: Happy 10th Birthday, Google So, you’re turning ten, eh? Well, let me say a few words starting with “thank you”. Google, for all of the fussing and complaining I may do at times, I’m glad you and I met. Not just for the amazing search engine that has certainly impacted the internet in a tremendously positive way, but for leading the charge on privacy, data driven marketing, transparency, etc. Without you, my job wouldn’t be as interesting as it is. So thanks again for that. Oh yeah, and thanks for my Google mini-fridge, too. It doesn’t get … [Read more...] about Search Stats You Need to Know & The Bible of the Search Industry
Automotive search engine marketing
Search Stats You Need to Know (Sept 08) & Build A Banner In Minutes
In The Trenches is a weekly spotlight of tips, tricks, and news about the tools search engine marketing professionals use to give them a leg up on the competition. Today: news from the search engines, today’s in-depth look: search stats you need to know (September 2008), Google’s new, free display ad builder, and this week’s free tips and tools. News from the search engines Google AdWords: Separate metrics for Google and search partners are now available As reported on the Inside AdWords blog, and in the spirit of transparency, Google is finally breaking out stats between Google Search and the Google Search Network. I’ve actually run mirrored campaigns with each option just to be able to see the difference between the two search vehicles. I’m glad Google has now opened this up to us. According to the Google blog: We’re happy to let you know that we’ve changed the way your Campaign Summary and Ad Group Summary pages present statistics in order … [Read more...] about Search Stats You Need to Know (Sept 08) & Build A Banner In Minutes
From Russia, With (Search) Love
Over the past few months I have had the opportunity to learn more about the current digital market and advertising opportunities in Russia from Preston Carey who is heading up Yandex’s new business opportunities outside of Russia. While China often gets the attention for its growth and opportunity, Preston showed me that Russia can also offer opportunities for companies looking to expand their international reach. I first experienced the online opportunities in Russia while presenting an academic paper on using the internet to reach overseas markets at the Saint Petersburg University of Economics and Finance in 2004. During the presentation I asked about internet usage and while many of the professors and business leaders attending did not indicate much usage, the students all were using the internet and many of them spent time with me after the presentation asking very specific questions on how they can use the internet and search to gain exposure for Russian goods and services … [Read more...] about From Russia, With (Search) Love
SEO vs. Search Engine Optimization Queries
Is typing in “SEO” the same as typing in “search engine optimization“? Not according to the data in AdWords. The queries in the search engine optimization data set are quite different than the data in the SEO data set. This was a bit of a surprise even to me. It turns out that there is much more variable traffic in the search engine optimization data by a 4-to-1 margin over an SEO search. Search engine optimization: 125 million monthly searches. SEO: 30 million monthly searches. The Search Engine Optimization group has 25 categories of behavior. The SEO group has three fewer search behavior categories. For example, there is no traffic for the advertising, business and search engines categories. So, what do these differences mean? I’ll start by comparing the search traffic head-to-head. For example, in this view you will notice that location-based searches are much more prominent in the SEO group, while product development queries are almost … [Read more...] about SEO vs. Search Engine Optimization Queries
How Potential Clients Search For An Interactive Agency
The search behavior associated with businesses trying to find an interactive agency is very different from other models that I’ve looked at in the past. Generally, informational searches dominate search behavior. In this case, informational searches are very small compared to the number of types that businesses specify when looking for an interactive agency. The type category is fairly complex with 13 sub-categories, which is the most I’ve ever seen in single high-level category. It’s interesting that businesses describe the type of agency they are looking for in about a dozen different ways that describe a single need. There are 19 high-level categories of behavior across 7.2 million monthly searches in this search behavior model. The type category is 10 times larger than the next category (social) and I have broken it out into sub-categories later in this article to show in better detail what is going on there. Besides type, there are three categories that suggest … [Read more...] about How Potential Clients Search For An Interactive Agency