SEO Blog

A cool mass of air is breezing across southern Vancouver Island this morning, blanketing the warm city in a light layer of fog. The hue of light is as ominous as it is beautiful. I know this breeze all too well. It marks the end of our early autumn resurgence of summer and the beginning of the end of the year. Winter is almost upon us again.

Fortunately, we have found a bunch of reasons to celebrate the transitions from summer to autumn to winter, several of which involve the purchase and distribution of vast quantities of food, gifts and gratuity. Between now and the new year, there are three major periods of cultural celebration, each of which compels consumers to buy stuff, and lots of it. For retailers both on and off-line the last three months on the calendar tend to be the most important in their fiscal cycle.

In Canada, the holiday buying/spending season sort of starts in ten days with Thanksgiving being marked on October 9th. In the US, the season kicks off about a week later in a frenzy of last minute preparations for Halloween. If you have a business dependant on holiday season sales, this would be a good time to start mentioning those holidays on your website or in your product descriptions.

Via Greg Sterling from Search Engine Watch, comScore Networks released a press release today detailing the size and growth of local search in the United States. According to comScore, 63 percent of American Internet users performed a local search in July, 2006, a significant 43 percent increase from July, 2005. The interesting tidbit is the market share percentages. Although Google holds a comfortable lead over Yahoo! for overall search, both engines are virtually tied for local share. Here’s a break down according to the comScore press release:

Action taken by local searchers is also significant. During Q2, 2006, 47 percent of local searchers ended up visiting local merchants after performing local queries, while 37 percent made online contact with merchants.

Google Base has been called the Index of all indices, a reference to the concept that Google is preparing to merge and present information from any variety of sources. According to Google, it is simply another way to get information into the Google search database, especially useful for submitters who don’t maintain their own websites. In practical terms, Google Base appears to be a way to submit a list of virtually anything from free information to expensive items. In short, Google Base seems designed to cover all bases. “Changes Blur the Scenery Along the Digital Divide”, Nov 16, 2005

Google Base is one of the least understood search tools to emerge from the Googleplex in the company’s eight year history. Though very few people in the search marketing industry claim to fully understand what Google Base is or what Google’s long-term intentions are, everyone appears to agree it is going to be an important component in Google’s future development.

Search marketers have been recommending clients establish Google Base accounts for almost a year now. Virtually any information can be uploaded to Google Base, including services, products, art, poetry, essays, used cars and kitchen sinks. How that information is used to inform or create search results has, for the most part, remained a mystery to search marketers.

Click Fraud is one of those blockbuster issues that are inarguably important but often pushed to the backburner in lieu of an industry consensus and solid solutions. Estimated to range between 5% and 20% of all pay-per-click traffic, click fraud is said to cost its victims (PPC advertisers) over $1Billion per year. Advertisers involved with pay-per-click marketing should, by now, have some knowledge of click fraud, or at least understand it is a potential threat. For those who don’t, two of the heaviest hitters in the mainstream media carry stories detailing the issue of click fraud.

On Saturday (Sept 23, 2006), the New York Times published technology writer Karen J. Bannan’s story, “Click Fraud is Growing on the Web”. The October 2nd edition of Business Week Magazine will hit store shelves featuring cover story, “Click Fraud – The dark side of online advertising”.

Both stories note advertiser frustration with increasing costs and decreasing conversions. In the Business Week article, PPC advertiser Martin Fleischmann is quoted saying click fraud “… has cost his business more than $100,000 since 2003.” The New York Times quotes Joe Tedd, another PPC advertiser, saying his company lost $17,000 over seven months to click fraud. “In November, we saw the number of searches going up on all the engines we had placement on,’’ Mr. Tedd said. “But while all the other engines were seeing higher conversion rates, this one engine was doing so poorly, we actually took the campaign offline.”