SolutionsForTheNet.com

Getting The Most Out Of Your Web Analytics

With so much happening in the web analytics world it’s a bit difficult to even remember that I had promised a capping post in the SEM series on the political nature of SEM Analytics and how it might best live in an organization. Since then, I’ve written extensively on the VS acquisition and Score. But I haven’t even touched major issues like the recent purge at WebTrends.

I don’t know the people at WebTrends particularly well, and we have fewer clients on WebTrends than on VS or Omniture. So don’t look to me for an insider’s take. My suspicion is that negotiations with Omniture and subsequent VS acquisition unearthed significant differences between management and investors regarding exit strategy. It’s easy to see how that could happen and easy to understand why it would be fatal to working together. I’ve worked with VC’s before, and while you and your investors don’t have to see eye-to-eye on every aspect of running the company, you MUST agree about exit strategy. If investors think management isn’t on the same page about selling the company or yielding control, then change is inevitable and necessary. That’s just speculation, of course. It’s a bit like guessing why a marriage failed – sometimes it’s pretty obvious but sometimes it’s a thousand little things you never see from the outside.

It’s unwise to ignore the political dimension in most real-world decisions. As analytics practitioners, we tend to believe in the power of an “objective” view of reality – one in which rules of reasoning and evidence are used to structure decision-making and eliminate the most common sources of error. Certainly I believe that most organizations and most decision-makers can and should work to improve the quality of their decision-making. Not the least because business and marketing decisions are quite often mainly – if not entirely – political.

And nowhere is this truer in our world than in the Search Engine Marketing Analytics space. Here’s what I wrote in my last SEM Analytics post:

“SEM Analytics lives in a peculiar place – both in terms of web analytics and Search Marketing. As a web analyst, you aren’t generally responsible for optimizing your SEM program – either PPC or SEO. And there’s a pretty good chance that the people that are in charge of that optimization aren’t going to welcome outside measurement. That makes life a lot more difficult and challenging than it really ought to be. “

The heavy reliance on vendors for both SEO and PPC and complications around brand have created silos in many organizations that are extraordinarily difficult to cross. I have seen companies where online managers were not able to get information about their own PPC buy because their agency didn’t want to release it to them and was responsible to a higher power or a different organization.

That’s silliness of an extreme sort. But it’s not particularly uncommon. And what passes for normal in most organizations is a nearly complete segregation of SEO, PPC, Brand Marketing, Channel Marketing and Web Analytics into autonomous and often uncommunicative fiefdoms.

I’m going to talk about Brand at some later date (one of my planned posts dating back to X Change huddles!). But what about Search Engine Marketing – what’s the right way to structure your organization?

In a previous series of articles and rather controversial posts, I asserted that it was perfectly reasonable for an organization to bring Search Marketing in-house. I continue to believe that. It’s also perfectly reasonable to use an Agency. We see so many mismanaged programs of each type that it is difficult to choose which option is worse.

One of the advantages to going in-house is that you will typically get much better cooperation between the SEM team and the analytics team. This isn’t universal, but it is frequently true – especially if a measurement team is already in place when you start building your SEM team.

But whether you are using an Agency or going in-house, it’s important to understand how your web analytics team should interact with your buyers. The web analytics team is not going to be in a position to perform day-to-day optimizations. That’s the buyer’s job. 

The web analytics team should be responsible for setting the framework within which the buyers work and tracking the larger picture of how PPC and other marketing programs are interacting and performing.

It should be the job of the web analytics team to determine the appropriate optimization points for the PPC buying program; to help make decisions about new resource allocations (SEO, PPC, Banner, other); and to play a watch dog role on the program by insuring that gross mis-optimizations don’t exist and that channels are playing well together.

In particular, I think it’s important that the web measurement team be responsible for management reporting on SEM (and other online marketing) channel performance. Allowing teams to report up to management independently will practically insure that there is no way for management to compare their true effectiveness.

It’s these last two functions (watch-dog and reporting) which are likely to create resentment. Many a program buyer will insist that if they are meeting their goals they should be left alone. Maybe. There is no one right way to manage – most people and vendors respond better with oversight, others don’t. However you choose to manage, though, the necessity for STANDARDIZED performance reporting across channels is absolute.

It’s essential to keep in mind that web analytics practitioners have tools and data that usually aren’t available to your buyer. A good buyer, realizing this, should be open to outside measurement that increases their knowledge of what’s working and what isn’t. If your buyer resists this, perhaps you need a new buyer. I hate to say it, but often, the less competent the buyer, the more resentful they are of measurement.

With SEO, the situation is usually more straightforward. Unlike PPC, SEO doesn’t have real-time optimization and SEO vendors don’t deploy their own tags for measurement. Instead, you’re more likely to have to deal with a general lack of understanding about the need for measurement in any form.

Certainly one of the most common mistakes in SEO is to have vendors measure their performance by tracking position on search terms. This strategy creates serious mis-optimizations of SEO effort.

You should be managing SEO to total quality of traffic provided. And to do this, you are responsible for providing data back to your SEO firm.

Remember, SEO practitioners don’t have alternative data sources. It’s your job to make sure they know what the optimization goals are (ala PPC) AND how well they are achieving them. No vendor, however astute, can somehow intuit this data or know what’s working and what isn’t. Like they always say in marriage counseling – you have to say what you want, your partner isn’t a mind-reader.

It’s also true that SEO engagements often stall after a very productive first round. Using analysis techniques like the SEO Holes study, your measurement team can help focus SEO efforts as well as track their subsequent success.

Unlike PPC buyers, SEO vendors are unlikely to push for their own measurement solutions – but perhaps even more likely to resist the need for measurement at all. Make sure your vendor (or in-house team) buys into your measurement paradigm – not the “# of terms in high positions across engines” that otherwise passes for SEO measurement.

Building effective communication between your web measurement team and your SEO and PPC teams ought to be a significant priority for anyone serious about online marketing. That means carving out a clear role for web measurement and making sure you have teams or vendors willing – even excited - to accept those roles. And don’t neglect to back up those decisions with hands-on management to insure that the behaviors become institutional. Left to themselves, most organizations will quickly revert to the comfort-zone of “leaving well enough alone.”

I see far too many bad programs to believe this works. Measurement is your safeguard against complacency; your defense against both institutional and vendor arrogance. Use it.

This Article Was Reprinted From SEMAngel

Alan K’necht, founder and president of K’nechtology Inc., a Toronto search engine optimization and search engine marketing company, to speak at Web Builder 2.0 Dec. 3, 2007 and at PubCon (WebmasterWorld’s Search & Internet Marketing Conference) Dec. 5, 2007 in Las Vegas.

Toronto, Canada (PRWEB) November 20, 2007 — Alan K’necht, a prominent SEO expert and the founder and president of K’nechtology Inc., a Toronto search engine optimization and search engine marketing company, is scheduled to address both Web Builder 2.0 on Monday, December 3, at Mandalay Bay Resort and PubCon (WebmasterWorld’s Search & Internet Marketing Conference), December 5 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

K’necht will be delivering two distinct and unique addresses which will leverage both his experience as a Search Engine Optimization authority, and his extensive knowledge of web analytics. “Designing with Web Analytics in Mind” will be presented at Web Builder and will address the issues of how to bring together the goals of web designers and web developers with the needs of the marketing group for measuring and reporting on the effectiveness of a web site. During this address, the SEO expert will leverage his extensive knowledge of web analytics, SEO, marketing and web development to teach attendees how to make their sites measurable. This will be a product agnostic presentation, despite K’necht extensive knowledge of both WebTrends and Google Analytics

His second address “SEO Design and Organic Site Structure” will be presented at PubCon on December 5. During this address K’necht and a panel of other SEO experts will take a top down approach to designing a modern website with Search Engine Optimization in mind.

K’necht said, “It’s wonderful to be able to address these two different audiences all in the same week. While the topics of these addresses seem very different, the reality is there is no point in working Search Engine Optimization into your web development project plans without the ability to measure your success. That’s where the importance of web analytics comes into play. It doesn’t matter if you’re using high-end tools like Site Catalyst or WebTrends, mid-range tools like Google Analytics or any basic log analyzer, the reality is in today’s business world you no longer just have to measure success, you must measure and report on your success.”

K’necht will be available for interviews following both his addresses on an appointment basis only. Please contact K’nechtology Inc. to arrange an appointment.

Based in Toronto, Ontario, K’nechtology Inc. specializes in search engine optimization, search engine marketing and web analytics. Alan K’necht is an internationally published author, has addressed conference audiences around the world, and operates a series of SEO and web analytics training workshops and seminars across North America and maintains a blog K’necht-It which address both SEO and web analytics issues.

This Article Was Reprinted From PRWeb

Using search engine optimisation to unlock brand equity for your business. What is brand equity and how do we use SEO to achieve it?

by Peter Fick
November 19, 2007

Marketers know that the secret to success is brand equity. So, how do you build brand awareness online? Through search engine optimisation. We explore this question in more detail below…

Firstly, let’s consider what brand equity is. Wikipedia describes brand equity as the value that customers and prospects perceive in a brand. It is all about trust, i.e. how much trust customers perceive in the brand. A high level of trust leads to customer loyalty which has long term benefits for your company. It is also what comes to a customers mind when they think about your brand. The more positive the image in the customers mind, the higher the value.

So how does this value manifest itself; where’s the benefit to your company? Well, if customers trust a brand they will be willing to pay a higher price than for competitive brands. In this case it is customers who perceive value in your brand, products and services beyond what they could buy at a lower price. The value accrues in other ways too. Have you ever wondered why companies are often valued more highly in the stock market than their book value? This typically occurs when shareholders perceive value in the business beyond today; i.e. they perceive some future value that is worth paying a higher price for today. We know that it takes time to build brand equity or trust so a strong brand has lasting value.

Why is it important? Fundamentally it is about competitive advantage. It is very difficult to outperform a competitor with a strong brand that has equity. As mentioned before, people pay premiums for strong brands.

OK, enough of the theory. How does this relate to search engine optimisation? Let me explain.

Increasingly consumers are shopping online. They value the convenience, efficiency and anonymity of researching product and service needs online. Recently iProspect conducted research into the attitudes of online shoppers and discovered that businesses that rank highly in the search engines have strong brand equity. Thirty nine percent of search engine users believe that the highest ranked companies are the leaders in their field. So, apart from the obvious benefits of ranking highly in search engines, i.e. the higher number of visitors to your web site, there is also a level of trust being created. Isn’t that interesting? Just by placing highly in the search engines, your business could be building trust and long term loyalty with consumers.

Search engine optimisation is critical to success of any online business. Strong positioning in search engines builds brand equity and strong brands create sources of competitive advantage.

This Article Was Reprinted From PromotionWorld

Free expression and controversial content on the web

11/14/2007 03:58:00 PM
Posted by Rachel Whetstone, Director of Global Communications and Public Affairs, EMEA

 Our world would be a very boring place if we all agreed all the time. So while people may strongly disagree with what someone says, or think that a particular newspaper article is total nonsense, we recognize that each of us have the right to an opinion.

We also know that letting people express their views freely has real practical benefits. Allowing individuals to voice unpopular, inconvenient or controversial opinions is important. Not only might they be right (think Galileo) but debating difficult issues in the open often helps people come to better decisions.

While most people agree in principle with the right to free expression, the challenge comes in putting theory into practice. And that’s certainly the case on the web, where blogs, social networks and video sharing sites allow people to express themselves - to speak and be heard - as never before.

At Google we have a bias in favor of people’s right to free expression in everything we do. We are driven by a belief that more information generally means more choice, more freedom and ultimately more power for the individual. But we also recognize that freedom of expression can’t be — and shouldn’t be — without some limits. The difficulty is in deciding where those boundaries are drawn. For a company like Google with services in more than 100 countries - all with different national laws and cultural norms - it’s a challenge we face many times every day.

In a few cases it’s straightforward. For example, we have a global all-product ban against child pornography, which is illegal in virtually every country. But when it comes to political extremism it’s not as simple. Different countries have come to different conclusions about how to deal with this issue. In Germany there’s a ban on the promotion of Nazism — so we remove Nazi content on products on Google.de (our domain for German users) products. Other countries’ histories make commentary or criticism on certain topics especially sensitive. And still other countries believe that the best way to discredit extremists is to allow their arguments to be publicly exposed.

All this raises important questions for Internet companies like Google. Our products are, after all, specifically designed to help people create and communicate, to find and share information and opinions across the world. So how do we approach these challenges?

It should come as no surprise to learn people have different views about what should appear on our sites. How and where to draw the boundaries is the subject of lively debate even within Google. We think that’s healthy. And partly because of this, we realize that creating a flawless set of policies on which everyone can agree is an impossible task.

Google is not, and should not become, the arbiter of what does and does not appear on the web. That’s for the courts and those elected to government to decide. Faced with day-to-day choices, however, we look at our products in three broad categories: search, advertising and services that host other people’s content.

Search is the least restricted category. We remove results from our index only when required by law (for example, when linked to content infringing copyright) and in a small number of other instances, such as spam results or results including unauthorized credit card and social security numbers. Where feasible, we tell our users when we remove results.

At the other, most restrictive, end of the spectrum, we have what might be called commerce products –- the text of the advertisements we carry, which are subject to clear ad content policies.

The most challenging areas are where we host other people’s content — offerings like Blogger, Groups, orkut and video. On the one hand, we’re not generating the content and we aim to offer a platform for free expression. On the other hand, we host the content on our servers and want to be socially responsible. So we have terms that we ask our users to follow. (See Blogger and orkut for examples.)

So the question becomes: how do we enforce those terms? In general, Google does not want to be a gatekeeper. We don’t, and can’t, check content before it goes live, any more than your phone company would screen the content of your phone calls or your ISP would edit your emails. Technology can sometimes help here, but it’s rarely a full answer. We also have millions of active users who are vocal when it comes to alerting us to content they find unacceptable or believe may breach our policies. When they do, we review it and remove it where appropriate. These are always subjective judgments and some people will inevitably disagree. But that’s because what’s acceptable to one person may be offensive to another.

We also face the added complication that laws governing content apply differently in the different parts of the world in which we operate. As we all know, some governments are more liberal about freedom of expression than others. These legal differences create real technical challenges, for example, about how you restrict one type of content in one country but not another. And, in extreme cases, we face questions about whether a country’s laws and lack of democratic processes are so antithetical to our principles that we simply can’t comply or can’t operate there in a way that benefits users.

But it’s not only legal considerations that drive our policies. One type of content, while legal everywhere, may be almost universally unacceptable in one region yet viewed as perfectly fine in another. We are passionate about our users so we try to take into account local cultures and needs — which vary dramatically around the world — when developing and implementing our global product policies.

Dealing with controversial content is one of the biggest challenges we face as a company. We don’t pretend to have all the right answers or necessarily to get every judgment right. But we do try hard to think things through from first principles, to be as transparent as possible about how we make decisions, and to keep reviewing and debating our policies. After all, the right to disagree is a sign of a healthy society.

This Article Was Reprinted From The Official Google Blog

Forrester has some great statistics related to the holiday season for online retailers:

1. 61% of online shoppers prefer an e-tailer that offers free shipping. However, 49% say shipping prices do not deter them from buying.
2. Only 26% say they would pay for expedited delivery. (It was 45% last year.)
3. 55% say they shop online to find products they can’t find offline.
4. Only 18% would pay extra for gift wrapping (down from 33%).
5. The top categories for online shopper this holiday season? In order: apparel, books, electronics, gift cards and toys
6. 68% of internet users shop online or research products online. 50% of those users window shop only (research information) and then buy offline. This is interesting—it seems to indicate that only about 1/3rd of internet users are really online shoppers.
7. The higher the income, the more likely a user is to shop or research products online.
8. Here are the biggest deterrents of online shopping in order: credit card security, privacy, shipping costs, quality, return policies, delays and product availability.

This is our dead season of the year because no one thinks about health supplements during the holidays. Our high point comes in January and February. How is your business this time of year?

This Article Was Reprinted From MarketingPilgrim

 5 Reasons Why Blogging is the Best Internet Marketing Tool

 Blogging has evolved into pages and pages, blog after blog of personal opinions on just about anything and everything under the sun. As it became more and more popular, online advertising tapped into the tremendous potential and ever growing audience. Here are 5 reasons why blogging is the best Internet marketing tool, today, for doing business online.

Blogging arrived on the Internet marketing scene in the late 90s. It originated as a way to Blogging and Internet Marketing comment on an existing webpage, an opportunity for visitors and readers to react or voice their opinions. It opened the door for real-time, 2-way conversations, even highly charged debates, among bloggers and blog visitors. Blogging has evolved into pages and pages, blog after blog of personal opinions on just about anything and everything under the sun. As it became more and more popular, online advertising tapped into the tremendous potential and ever growing audience. Here are 5 reasons why blogging is , today, for doing business online.

1. Blogging is easy.

The simplest way to get your information, your products, and your services on the Internet is through blogging. No special skills are required… an average adult can read and type, or at least click a mouse. Think of a blog as a virtual tablet of paper and you simply write your ideas, experiences, new products, and service descriptions down and if well written, the truth behind your articles will entice your readers, or blog visitors, to want to know more about you and what you have to offer. So basically, if you have a computer and an Internet connection (who doesn’t?) then you can blog and advertise.

2. Blogging is authentic.

In this day and age where advertising saturates our lives, we question the credibility of most advertising claims. However, in the , your blog content will represent a Blogging and Internet Marketingmore personal aspect of who you are and what you have to offer, establishing your credibility up-front. Reading blogs about first-hand product use is like talking to people about their first-hand experience. Consumers definitely want to buy a tried and tested product. Your potential customers will “get to know you” first, then naturally want to buy from you once you earn their trust.

3. Blogging is free.

There are many reliable and respectable companies offering services which include hosting and blog (CMS). With a free blogging service you can create a professional and profitable blog at no cost. Any opportunity for free Internet marketing tools is definitely a bonus especially for a start-up business. Needless to say, there are also and they too have their advantages. These services may warrant your considerations either once you get your free blog generating revenue, or if you know up-front your blog will require advanced functionality.

4. Blogging builds credibility.

As you write your experiences on a particular product or industry, more frequently, your readers come to realize that they can depend on your blog posts for credible information, answers to their questions and solutions to their problems. As such, you become an expert that they routinely turn to; the benefit is that more readers visit your site and more bloggers link to your blog. As companies and professional organizations notice the growth of your readership base, they may soon get in touch with you for advertising on your blog page, or make you an affiliate, which pays for every referral generated from your blog site.

5. Blogging builds your market share.

Unless you are already famous, chances are, only your Mom and close friends are reading your blog. Mom has a lot of friends, and your friends have friends, and they let them know how interesting your blog site is, but you can’t depend on this circle of blog visitors to sustain your profit base for long. You should be using the following to build your market:

E-mail - Today, is rapidly surpassing the popularity and effectiveness of email to quickly and effectively reach your target market. In this age of speed and quick access, logging in and downloading email is simply taking longer than clicking into a blog. Long gone are the days where we email pages and pages of information. You can now, simply shoot a very short email with a link to your blog where they can find the information in its’ entirety. Also be sure to include a signature in every email you send, to anyone, with a link to your blog.

Blogging and Internet Marketing-Subscriptions - An easy way to build your blogging audience, which in turn increases your market share, is to offer readers a . As a subscriber, they can receive email notifications when you update your blog, or when you have “special” offerings for subscribers only. It is very important though, to be responsible with your subscribers email addresses. The last thing you want is a comment on your blog that you are a spammer.

Understand your readers - It’s important to be knowledgeable and constantly monitor your readers needs and wants. A simple survey, every few months will aid you in keeping your finger on the pulse of what your readers will benefit from the most. Additionally, you’ll be able to gather profile information and advertising preferences. By asking your readers to give you feedback on a post, an ad link, or a trial that you shared, it’s like interviewing your readers without the commitment and intrusion of a face-to-face interview. Your readers will also appreciate the fact that you care, and you are willing to listen to them, especially when you implement things on your blog specific to their feedback.

Join a blog network – Be active and productively participate in a that share the same industry, interest, readership base, payment mode, etc. Consumers find credibility and convenience in clicking one link to several real bloggers about a single subject. The links back from these relative blogs will improve your search engine optimization and at the same time, help build even stronger credibility for you with your blogging audience.

Use RSS Feeds - RSS feeds are the fastest growing technology on the Internet today. As such, having to your blog is definitely another means of generating awareness for your readership base. Having a variety of feeds can add interest to your blog site and offer your readers the ability to zero in on the exact information that is of most interest to them.

Give your business a boost by effectively using blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

Put your blog readers needs first, build a strong, credible base and become the authority in your niche and the profits will naturally follow.

This Article Was Reprinted From IxusPhotoDaily

SolutionsForTheNet And WebMenu Announce New “Click-2-Call” Web Advertising and Service Initiative

STUDIO CITY, CA–(Marketwire - August 1, 2007) - WebMenu, Inc. (http://www.webmenu.com/) announced today that it has joined forces with Solutions For The Net (http://www.solutionsforthenet.com/) to begin testing a new online customer service platform that provides online consumers a fast and cost free method to speak directly with representatives of businesses who utilize selected advertising networks.

The program is designed to be a win-win situation for both the advertiser and the consumer. Business clients will be able to measure the effects of their advertising budget via incoming calls generated by marketing campaigns utilizing the “Click-2-Call” platform. Online customers benefit from the service also, as the communication platform between the consumer and the business will be provided free of charge to the consumer and will keep the consumers’ personal contact information private and anonymous to the advertiser.

How does the “WebMenu Click-2-Call” program work?

The process is extremely user friendly. Simply perform an internet search via the WebMenu search engine and WebMenu’s new “Click-2-Call” feature lets you speak directly over your telephone, for free, to participating businesses found on WebMenu’s TOP 5 search results. When this feature is available for a participating business, you will see a link in WebMenu’s TOP 5 results “Free Click-to-Call” next to the advertiser’s title.

To experience WebMenu’s “Free Click-2-Call” in action, visit http://www.webmenu.com/ and perform a search using one of the following sample keyword terms: Orlando Real Estate, Mortgage Loans, Apple, Bank, At Home Business, WebMenu, s4tn, ASM, B2B or Mona Vi. The first listing in the TOP 5 results has the “Free Click-2-Call” link. We welcome and encourage you to try out the service.

After the search results are returned, select the “Free Click-2-Call” link and you will be invited to enter your phone number into a specified field. Upon entering the number, click “Call Now!” WebMenu simultaneously calls the number you entered and the business. Simply answer the incoming call and notice the ringing on the other end as WebMenu connects you to the business selected. When the business representative answers, proceed as you would with any other call. The service utilizes advanced VOIP technology and can result in cost savings in long distance charges for individuals as well as measurable savings in eliminated toll charges for participating businesses.

While many online transactions are self-service, reality dictates that self-service cannot be achieved every time. This is particularly true when online consumers are completing complex purchasing decisions or high-value transactions. For these transactions, the power of a human voice is of great assistance in completing the process. The programs utilizing “Click-2-Call” technology will shorten the virtual distance between businesses and their customers, improving the customer experience.

Other companies that are currently testing similar “Click-2-Call” technologies include competitor search engines Google and Yahoo!, as well as social websites including Ccube and MySpace.

About WebMenu, Inc.

WebMenu, Inc. (http://www.webmenu.com/) is a premier search engine and media company located in Studio City, California. WebMenu’s primary goal is to deliver totally relevant search results from across the Web as quickly and conveniently as possible. WebMenu’s Cluster Search Technology is a search revolution powered by proprietary technology created and developed by WebMenu. WebMenu, Inc. is 30% owned by Redux Holdings, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: RDXH).

About Solutions For The Net

Solutions For The Net is distinguished by the extensive experience of its personnel in areas of promoting and marketing businesses on the internet. For additional information on Solutions For The Net, visit one of the company’s websites at http://www.solutionsforthenet.com/.

About Redux Holdings, Inc.

Redux Holdings is a publicly traded holding company that acquires the assets of companies and isolates, recombines and manages those assets to increase their value and develop profitable strategic options. The Company is distinguished by the extensive experience of its personnel in quickly identifying, analyzing and stabilizing these business opportunities and effecting rapid turnaround and asset monetization.

For additional information on Redux Holdings, Inc., visit the company’s website at http://www.reduxholdings.com/. Investor information, including an investor fact sheet, is available for download at www.firstcapitalinvestors.com/rdxh.html.

“SAFE HARBOR”

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the definition of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and such section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934, amended. These forward-looking statements should not be used to make an investment decision. The words ‘estimate,’ ‘possible’ and ’seeking’ and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, which speak only as to the date the statement was made. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted, or quantified. Future events and actual results could differ materially from those set forth in, contemplated by, or underlying the forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties to which forward-looking statements are subject include, but are not limited to, the effect of government regulation, competition and other material risks.

Corporate Contacts:

WebMenu, Inc.
800-605-3791

Solutions For The Net
866-569-0991

Redux Investor Relations:
First Capital Investors, Inc.
Email Contact
321-221-2910

 Search Engine Marketing - SEM

As a new PricewaterhouseCoopers study indicates that Internet Marketing is set to increase by 10.7 per cent a year until 2011 in the US, we take a look at search engine Marketing (SEM) and what that term actually means. In simple terms, SEM covers activities such as placing paid advertisements with search engines like Google, submitting sites to directories, developing Internet Advertising strategies and - perhaps most importantly - carrying out search engine optimisation (SEO).

Search engine optimisation (SEO)

SEO involves increasing the number of internet users (traffic) visiting a website in order to capture a larger audience, as well as improving the quality of that traffic.

SEO involves increasing the number of internet users (traffic) visiting a website in order to capture a larger audience, as well as improving the quality of that traffic.

Professionals working in SEO consider the methods used by search engines like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Ask.com, when these search engines crawl the internet. Improving the SEO of a website may include changing its presentation, structure and content, such as including a daily news feed to keep it fresh and relevant for consumers.

Various factors are considered, and Google and the other search engines are very good at selecting the best websites based on a number of factors such as keywords. So, if a consumer is searching for, say, “year-round travel insurance”, Google will tend to give priority to those sites that feature that key term in their copy.

Paid advertisements SEM

Search engine marketing can also involve the use of paid advertisements, which typically use pay per thousand (PPM) or pay per click (PPC) models.

Pay per click ads are small textual advertisements that display next to search results that are relevant to the product. So, if you search for “travel insurance” on Google you will see a number of sponsored listings on the right hand side.

When internet users click on these ads, the advertisers make a payment to Google. If they are using a PPM model, they pay a certain amount per thousand visitors; if they are using a PPC model they pay a small amount each time the ad’s hyperlink is clicked on.

The main programs that are used are Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter.

Benefits of search engine marketing

The benefits of search engine marketing are well-known. As well as being a way to reach millions of potential consumers, SEM offers an affordable way to gain media exposure and a way for smaller companies to compete with the larger corporations with advertising budgets of millions.

Despite this, many small businesses are failing to take advantage of the fast-growing number of buyers now shopping online.

That’s a shame for them, because the benefits are very real - which is why more than £2 billion was spent on online advertising last year in the UK.

This Article Was Reprinted From DirectTraffic

Yahoo! Tests New Search-Engine Ad Model

Mary Crane, 04.06.06, 11:31 AM ET

RBC analyst Jordan Rohan reports that Yahoo! has released a test version of its new search monetization in Scandinavia and will expand the rollout to the U.K. in July.Codenamed “Project Panama,” Yahoo’s new model will be similar to that of Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ), which ranks search-engine ads by both the amount advertisers pay for keywords and the relevance of the ad. The Google-like algorithm should result in higher click-through rates than its older model that ranked ads only by the amount paid for keywords.Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ) has notified certain high-volume search buyers of the upcoming changes to its sponsored search monetization algorithm and a widespread announcement should be made in the coming weeks, possibly at the AdTech expo.Rohan maintains his “outperform” rating and price target of $42 on Yahoo! stock, and says an announcement of the U.K. beta rollout could positively affect Yahoo shares. A full “Project Panama” rollout in the United States and Japan will likely happen in late 2006 or early 2007.

This Article Was Reprinted From Forbes

Patent Filed On Behalf Of Google Seeks To Change The Way Duplicate Content Is Handled

Google blogger Matt Cutts has filed a patent on behalf of the search engine that could affect the way it ranks search results.ZDNet writers have speculated that the patent relating to ‘Document Scoring Based on Document Inception Date’ could have significant implications for where websites are listed on Google.

The abstract of the patent reads: “A system may determine a document inception date associated with a document, generate a score for the document based, at least in part, on the document inception date, and rank the document with regard to at least one other document based, at least in part, on the score.”

This implies, as ZDNet’s Russell Shaw notes, that Google could more accurately rank documents according to which were published first.

“I’ve often felt that published date should have more prominence in determining these writings,” he said.

Such a move would give more prominence to those websites with newsfeeds that are regularly updated, as their pages will remain fresher.

“Sites with slower crawl rates could be adversely affected by this new document scoring system. Even if a site produces original content, with a slow crawl rate larger sites would be able to steal content and be credited as the source” Said James Helliwell from Fires Spin Media. “A good way to counter this potential duplicate content penalty would be to build links to new content pages from high ranking sites” he continued.

Other factors considered when compiling ‘history data’ could include:
Content updates, query analysis, traffic, user behaviour, domain-related information and user-maintained data.

Google is notoriously secretive about the way it organises its search results. Its PageRank system organises web pages according to how important they are deemed to be based on various criteria.

The company describes the process thus: “In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B.

“But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyses the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves ‘important’ weigh more heavily and help to make other pages ‘important’.”

This Article Was Reptinted From DirectTraffic.org