Google has introduced a new option under the “Tools” menu in AdWords which lets you view ads in different geo-targeted areas.

As you will see by clicking the link below, this can only be used when you are actually logged in to AdWords.

Ads Preview Tool New!
See your ad on Google without accruing extra impressions, and preview your ad as it appears to users in other geographic locations.

As you can see by the following Google screenshot, a recent no-cost submission to “palmbeachcountybusinesslist.com” has resulted in a #2 SERP (Search Engine Results Position) in Google for “dialysis center boynton beach”. This listing, submitted just over two weeks prior to this blog post, is beneficial to UniversalKidneyCenters.com. (See screenshot below)  

 The “businesslist” directory has cities and counties in various regions which can be found on the “About” page at http://www.palmneachcountybusinesslist.com. I highly recommend you submit your sites accordingly, and follow the instructions for an upgrade to Premium Listing.

From the Yahoo Blog, it seems like Yahoo is going to cause some scrambled rankings…..we just love when this happens, don’t we?

Also, according to Neilsen, Yahoo only had an 18.1% market share in March, compared to Google’s 58.7% share. So, if Goolge were to buy out Yahoo, that would reflect a 76.8 market share…..something to think about….

The whole point of a solid internal link structure about getting the end-user to the conversion point. It can also be used for search engine optimiZation in several ways. If you are using a content management system that has a keyword tagging feature you can have it search for keywords within the content and link to relevant pages. This will increase conversions and increase the time the end-user spends on your website. Robots also like internal links within content that point to other, unique relevant content and they follow these links.

This is where the use of a “nofollow” attribute comes in handy.  The nofollow was intended to reduce the certain instances of search engine spam, thereby improving the quality of search engine results and preventing pages from being loaded with extraneous terms and links from occurring in the first place.

What it does is tell the search engines that you do not endorse the page you have linked to. Using this on internal links like your About, Contact or other pages will increase the amount and quality of links that are passed on to the important pages. A good example of this is if your template navigation is always the same; add nofollow attributes to all of the links beyond the front page so that you place in your content will get all of the benefit of the link volume.

Just be sure not to confuse the search engines by using the same keyword anchor text as the key word you are optimising the page for.  Moderation is a key strategy that can easily be overlooked.

Additionally when you are creating new pages based on the keyword selection, you can link to them from the front page or an internal doorway page built for ‘closer-to-the-root-file’ navigation. Put nofollows on everything except your anchor text that points to these new pages. If your homepage carries a good Page Rank it will pass it down to the new page and should give you a boost in the rankings. The goal is that you want to find a niche phrase, build an optimized page for it, add a link to it from a well ranking page and improve your rankings the term.

Yahoo has rejected Microsofts offer to take over the search pioneer. According to the official Yahoo press release the offered $31 a share massively undervalues the organization, cash flow and earnings potential and they believe that other alternatives can be used in order to keep shareholders happy and retain control over their brand.

With Yahoo currently in the process of letting about 1000 people go from the company, those at the top owul need to cut more jobs if this deal went through. Another thing to consider is that Microsoft and Silicon Valley companies do not play well together. Seen as a mega corporation that stifles creativity and absorbs competition, Microsofts pockets can handle a sizeable counteroffer , possiblt over $40 a share that may force the hand of stockholders.

Yahoo’s alternatives are along the lines of partnerships with Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp, Time Warner’s AOL and even their main competition Google. While a partnership with Google may sidestep anti trust laws by acting as a search/ad/ content deal, don’t expect Microsoft to hold back with throwing some legal red flags to prevent that deal. Given all the possibilities and speculations at this point one thing is certain, Microsoft is definitely Yahoo’s last resort, and one that isn’t leaving the scene anytime soon.

With search engines placing more and more weight on relevant content the push to create keyword rich copy is on many site owners minds. Or at least it should be. Web 2.0 and social media sites have allowed an unprecedented platform to communicate, network and share ideas across the Internet. By creating a blog for your website you not only are helping your search marketing efforts by using key phrases, but you are also putting yourself out as a knowledgeable professional in your field.

A potential customer (and search engine spider) is always more inclined to go with an information rich page on the topic of interest. One must keep in mind however that people are the ones that buy and therefore need to be engaged by your content. The advantage of a blog comes into play here by allowing you to put up fresh content and get visitor feedback.

Certain web 2.0 applications like squidoo work well as a “one sheet” listing information and links to your company for free with a high search ranking. Others such as myspace and facebook aren’t required for a lot of businesses and those that do create profiles and not embrace the social network seriously and put in the time will be left with an outdated page that no one wants to be friends with. On the other hand monitoring the page regularly can help with brand exposure.

Moral of the story is keep the fresh content flowing. Search engines and people will be attracted to you and your services and may eventually see you as a resource for information. At the least you will be keeping yourself up to date and informed about your own industry.

From the Google Webmaster Central Blog, Goole has introduced “video sitemaps” which can be added to the Sitemap Protocol. The blog gives an example of the video-specific code, as does the Google Help Center.

I would think that third party contributors will be offering Video Sitemap Generators very soon.

Really important heads up here, everybody:

In an article on TheStreet.com about Google’s heavily anticipated 3rd quarter earnings report which will be released today, October 18th, a few sentences halfway through the piece really jolted me out of my pre-caffeinated haze:

“Advertisers will now have to pay the highest amount they bid for an ad. Previously, advertisers would get a refund for the amount between what it took to win an ad auction and their bid.

The move is widely expected to boost the amount Google makes on search.”

Not Good from an advertiser or agency POV.  This sucks for advertisers and SEM firms unless, maybe, they own enough Google stock to offset the added PPC costs.

My hunch is that it is going to require a lot of report running and meticulous bid tweaking to protect our clients’ PPC budgets from the cost increases that this policy change is going to drive.

I’ll do some more research and add my findings here later.

Another well reported article from the NY Times of interest to search engine marketers, this time about Google and cellphones and a 21st century version of the Great Game, with the prize in this case being access to cellphone screens around the world instead of the oil-rich hinterlands of Central Asia. The plot is thickened by a cast of software developers, open source practitioners and of course megacorps around the globe, and accelerated by untold billions in potential ad revenue.

Right off the bat, I’d like declare myself a skeptic on the notion that cellphone search advertising is going mass market anytime soon.

Smart phones do provide a great if unproven opportunity for paid search to find a new foothold within a potentially massive consumer market, allowing advertisers to connect to a certain demographic - which is great if and pretty much only if you’re selling something to the kind of people that are buying smart phones!

But I digress. This article gives us some insight into Google’s manuvering - either acknowledged or behind the scenes - to find a way to penetrate this (smart) cellphone market, perhaps by promoting open source operating systems, programming standards, and APIs or libraries of code that provide developers with this or that Google-driven function. [Read more →]

From the NYTimes on Wednesday, here’s an interesting article on Yahoo’s latest gambit to compete with Googzilla: Yahoo Upgrades Online Search Engine

Yahoo has been working hard to whip up some buzz about the recent “enhancements” to its core search engine, and the article above provides a good, unhyped overview of the non-technical details about the “new Yahoo” as well as a brief sketch of the historic background to this latest chapter of the Search Wars (hint: they ended 3 years ago).

It seems to me that one key audience that is routinely left out of this discussion of Yahoo’s fading popularity and subsequent efforts to resurrect itself is the SEM industry. As far as I’m concerned, they badly botched their attempt to launch a new Google-free Yahoo search in 2004 not merely by putting a sub-standard product in the marketplace, but more specifically by trying to merge the Inktomi model of pay-for-indexing (Inktomi was one of their big acquisitions) with the Yahoo directory (the core of old Yahoo) in with their new and rather weak organic search engine, while simultaneously going full guns with their PPC products, which also lagged behind Google’s at the time. But it was that pay-for-organic-indexing nonsense that really annoyed a lot of search marketers and I don’t think they’ve ever completely restored their reputation within this community. Well, that and the fact that their market share has consistently dwindled in the interim may have had just a little something to with their decline in SEM land.

As for the “New Yahoo - 150% More Yahooriffic”, I haven’t really explored all these whiz-bang enhancements that are supposedly going to get Yahoo Search back in the Game, but I do like the automatic search term suggestion drop down and I like the idea that Yahoo can somehow leverage Flickr to make their image search better than those other guys’s image search . If anyone has delved further into the details of new UI improvements or other changes at Yahoo (including Yahoo local, which has been getting tweaked significantly over the past 6 months) , please share. Color me skeptical but open-minded.