spidersplat.com

– Gary E. Haffer - Director of Sales and Marketing SpiderSplat Search Engine algorithms are constantly evolving so that the most relevant sites end up with the highest page ranks. An algorithm is a set of rules that an engine uses to rank the listings contained within its index, in response to a particular query. Google makes algorithmic changes more frequently than leading competitors such as MSN and Yahoo - and it is a constant battle of wits between search engines and search engine marketers. Webmasters and marketers want to know how to manipulate and maintain high page rankings, while search engines strive to make sure the pages with high ranks are the most relevant possible and are filled with valuable content for searchers. Relevancy is one of the biggest perceived differentiators between the main search market share holders.  One of the most important ways to improve your site’s ranking is through link building. Not only will the search engines see links to your site as increasing its relevance, but links from outside sites will always lead to more direct web traffic. Search engines see incoming links as an endorsement or vote for your site. Would you link your website to one that you did not appreciate? In addition, a search engine will think that your site is really important if you are linked to by sites with autonomous link popularity. This gives your website authority and engines will perceive you as a reputable resource. The term “link popularity” refers to the number of indexed inbound links to your website. Simply put - the more websites that link to you the more “popular” your site becomes. Link analysis of this sort evaluates which sites link to you, and what text is being used in the outgoing hyperlink itself. This text should contain keywords that accurately tell search engines how your site should be ranked in relation to the information contained within. For example, if your website sold pottery, ideally sites that link to your domain would contain that keyword: Buy Pottery Online.  One way links to your site are perceived by algorithms to be more important than those you reciprocate. If someone links to you, and you aren’t returning the favor, then that likely means your site is of greater importance. One good way to gain links without having to reciprocate is through the use of testimonials. It is difficult to convince or encourage another site to link to you without reciprocation. Testimonials, however, solve this problem by making it in the best interest of others to link to you. If you write a sincere testimony or review, they are going to want their readers to be able to see it. They must include the source of the testimony - hence your incoming link. Also consider adding your site to the wealth of free online directories.  Frequently adding original content to your site helps you gain page rank, but it can also help to share content with other sites. If other websites want to include your content on their page, then all you have to do is insist they include a link to you or utilize an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. Also, write articles that will be of interest to others and then distribute them to other article databases. Incoming links to your site is one of the most important facets of SEO today, and any related effort must include this sort of legwork in order to be truly successful. Utilize directories, RSS, testimonials, press releases and good, original content to encourage links and improve the visibility of your web presence.

The size and importance of the online marketplace is rapidly increasing. Forrester Research released an online retail study projecting that the Internet brought in $269 billion in retail sales in 2005, while influencing $378 billion in offline sales and over half a trillion dollars all together. With e-commerce continuing to increase its impact on retail sales, online retailers have begun utilizing comparison shopping sites by the thousands.According to another study, while only 18 percent of online consumers use comparison shopping sites that segment spends 24 percent more than average online consumers do. It is certainly a desirable method of generating sales leads; however, as more online retailers use comparison shopping sites, bid prices will undoubtedly escalate. Some argue that customers who visit these sites seek the lowest prices and for that reason will only drive their margins down. So what is the key to long term success for these businesses? The answer is brand building.

The comparison industry is extremely crowded with a limited number of different services that only demonstrate marginal points of differentiation. The leading shopping engines are AOL Shopping, Froogle, MSN Shopping, NexTag, PriceGrabber, Shopping.com, Shopzilla, and Yahoo Shopping. The comparison shopping space was once solely occupied by small retailers with slim marketing budgets. But now that numerous big players like J.C. Penney and Nordstrom have entered the arena, many smaller retailers have withdrawn their businesses from comparison shopping sites altogether. As a result, other retailers are hesitant about allocating advertising money to these sorts of sites. What they do not realize is that comparison shopping sites provide the best turf in which a small company can build its brand because of the increased exposure. According to comScore Media Matrix, Shopping.com was ranked the 20th most visited website in 2005 and alone had approximately 22.6 million unique visitors on average every month. (more…)

Hundreds of millions of Websites exist today. As far as domain names and new pages of content go, they’re off the charts as well. Statistics from August of 2001 listed 513.41 people on-line worldwide according to Alexa Internet Worldwide, there were 1.5 million sites born every day in 1998. Alexa also indicated that about half of all internet traffic that year was steered toward the top 900 sites available.

Gregory Gromov, in an on-line piece about the history of the World Wide Web, reported that internet traffic grew more than 100% in 2001. Gromov’s report (“Roads and Crossroads of Internet History” on http://www.netvalley.com/) also includes a staggering chart detailing the exponential growth of the net over the last thirty years. In 1969, when the internet was just a concept Al Gore was working on, there were just four hosts by Gromov’s count. By July of 2001 that number had grown to 126 million hosts. Gromov’s chart estimates that there were 30 million domains in 2001 and 28,200,000 Websites. Compare that to 1998 numbers of just 4,300,000 domains and 4,270,000 Websites.

Why? Is human knowledge expanding this quickly in the information age? Well, yes, and no. Human knowledge is of course expanding, but maybe not as quickly as the exchange of products and services for cold cash. E-commerce is skyrocketing along with the number of hosts, users, domains, and Websites. Trillions of dollars change hands over the internet in a calendar year these days. That’s nothing new, either. At Networld 98, industry analyst Nicholas Lippis announced that online commerce would generate USD1.5 trillion of US GDP by 2002.

With Broadband connections taking a serious role in so many American lives (Broadband use has already eclipsed 50% of the US on-line population), the access to human knowledge is expanding more than the actual knowledge itself. While service providers are the big winners in this marketplace of interconnected sites and search engines, garnering the lion’s share of on-line profits, new business sites are popping up every single day.

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Starting a new PPC campaign from scratch requires planning and a clear set of conversion goals. Building new accounts, researching keywords and testing ad copy all factor in to the ramp up time - but is there ever a point at which you’re ‘done’? Can occasional maintenance take the place of the undivided attention you were devoting in the early days of a new PPC effort? The short answer is ‘definitely not’. Although it may seem plausible that your campaigns will reach a point where they can be switched on to auto pilot, there are many reasons you should always remain active in their daily management.

Abstract: Comparison shopping sites are becoming increasingly popular amongst online retailers. Small retailers have the tendency to feel as though they cannot survive in such a competitive environment where prices are being driven down by larger retailers, which have the business models to support themselves on slimmer margins. However, small retailers can gain and retain market share without lowering their prices and by building their brands.

The online market place is rapidly growing. Recently, Forrester Research released an online retail study projecting that the Internet will bring in $269 billion in retail sales in 2005, while influencing $378 billion in offline sales, over half a trillion dollars all together. With e-commerce continuing to increase its impact on retail sales, online retailers have begun piling into comparison shopping sites. According to an October 2004 study done by Forrester Research, while only 18 percent of online consumers use comparison shopping sites, that segment spends 24 percent more than average online consumers do. It is certainly a desirable method of generating sales leads; however, as more online retailers use comparison shopping sites, bid prices will escalate. Some online retailers argue that customers who visit these sites seek the lowest prices and for that reason will just drive their margins down. So what is the key to long term success for these businesses? Brand building. (more…)

You wouldn’t tolerate a customer walking out of your store with stolen merchandise.  Then why would you tolerate pirates who are stealing an estimated 20% of your online advertising dollars?

If you think all your “Pay-Per-Click” online advertising dollars are well spent, think again.  The $5.6 billion Pay-Per-Click industry itself estimates that between 5% and 20% ($260 million to $1 billion) of this figure is spent on fraudulent clicks — money stolen right out of your pocket.

What is Click Fraud?

There’s considerable debate within the industry on what constitutes an act of click fraud.  Google and Yahoo! are struggling to redefine “good-faith click” because of all the bad faith clicks on their search engines, according to a Newsweek article.  Nevertheless, click fraud is “the biggest threat to the Internet economy,” according to George Reyes, Google’s CFO.

What is click fraud?  If a competitor’s sales rep clicks on your ad, is that click fraud? It’s definitely not a lead.  How about if you competitor asks all of its 100 employees to click your $2 per click add once every day?    According to the search engines, this is not detected as fraud. 

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As most of you probably know, Apple’s iPhone is being released tomorrow to an enormous amount of hype and buzz thanks, in no small part, to their marketing department. Apple’s marketing for the product has been extremely unorthodox, no doubt relying on its rabid loyal user-base — something most brands do not have the luxury of.

Unlike most technological products, instead of releasing detailed product specs., Apple has purposely kept it from the public, adding to the mystique and mystery of the product. Note, though, this is actually somewhat consistent with the commonly-held marketing principle of emphasizing benefits as opposed to features.

Also as unorthodox, Apple has fueled and promoted speculation amongst the blogsphere, as opposed to quashing it with the concrete truth – something more common in something like Hollywood movie marketing rather than, say, PDAs. Doing this not only built buzz, but clearly differentiated the iPhone from the rest of the pack.

Another clear differentiation is that the iPhone is not marketed towards corporate businessmen like other smart phones already on the market. Instead, it’s portrayed as hip and fashionable, something that traditionally appeals more to the young adult crowd. Its ads have focused on colorful media, such as videos, music, and the Internet, as opposed to its organizational capabilities and other programs. In fact, its June release date was probably partially chosen because of its closeness to most schools’ graduations week, thus immediately positioning that iPhone as an ideal graduation present — a pricier gift than your typical Christmas or birthday presents (which come once a year), but at least cheaper than a car.

The strategy of targetting young adults is unorthodox, to say the least, and it’ll be interesting to see if Apple shifts to an older demographic once the initial buzz wears off in a year or so. It’ll also be interesting to see how the exclusivity contract they’ve signed with AT&T works out in the long-run. Unlike iPods, where “repeat” business comes in the form of accessories and songs from iTune, iPhone’s major source of follow-up income is going to be primarily in the phone service. Placing such responsibility in AT&T’s service indicates a lot of trust in the company, especially since Apple (assumingly) does not have much control in their operations.  On the other hand, partnerships with AT&T and other such mobile providers also reduces marketing costs and cuts down the wholesale portion of Apple’s supply chain management so, perhaps, the savings and risks even out in the long run.

Apple has always prided themselves in being innovators and their marketing strategies have been no different. However, innovative does not equate to invulnerable and only time will tell how their latest gamble works out.