Google recently announced their new Twitter timeline search feature. It is quite an exciting feature, as it helps to track hot topics being searched for, what was being discussed relating to those topics at specific times and so, provide better insight into user behaviour and interests.

Google’s initial release allows you to explore tweets going back to February 11, 2010, and soon you’ll be able to go back as far as the very first tweet on March 21, 2006.

To access this feature:

• Search off the topic of interest
• Click “Show options” on the Google search results page, then
• Select “Updates.”

The first page will show you the familiar latest and (what Google considers) best updates from a comprehensive set of sources, with the new timeline chart at the top. In that chart, you can select the year, month or day, or click any point to view the tweets from that specific time period.

So how will this benefit you? Where there is a hot topic in your industry, it gives you the opportunity to leverage off that topic, and apply it to your own business. This  will be extremely valuable if you have your own Blog, Twitter or Facebook account, and start discussing that topic. By doing so it gives you more opportunity of having one of your web marketing mediums picked up by a potential customer as they are searching off that topic.

Other ways this can be utilised is to change your Pay-Per-Click or Organic SEO campaign(s) to use these words. For example, if you are a dietician, and the hot topic is on a new diet fad sweeping Hollywood, you could use these topical keywords for your campaigns, and write your opinions on whether that diet is effective, or dangerous (if using Pay-Per-Click, don’t forget to make sure your Ad Campaign landing page is the page where you have discussed this topic). Not only are you more likely to have your website found this way, you are also building credibility, and have the opportunity to increase sales for your business or services.

The only thing I found when searching various hot topics is that these results are not very ‘localised’, and so if you are looking for topics that are within say Australia, or even your city, you may be disappointed. In the example screenshot below, I have search off ‘interest rates australia’ for April 2010, then narrowed down to the spike shown on the 6th April 2010. The top 10 results displayed did not include any Australian websites, only international ones.

In saying that, this is a newly released feature, and as Google is ever evolving, we may see localised results in the near future.

search: ‘interest rates australia’ for April 2010

search: ‘interest rates australia’ for 6th April 2010

Looking for the best results in building your business on the web? Call us today to find out how we can build your business.

Over the past two  years, the business landscape in Australian has changed significantly in its awareness of search engines, and the benefits and importance of an effective website.

Two or three years ago, Pay-Per-Click services such as Google AdWords were more widely known and utilised, whereas focusing on developing and improving organic search results (natural listings) was mostly under utilised . Historically businesses invested less in organic search engine campaigns in favour of Pay-Per-Click.

Today, changes in market awareness and the need to become more innovative has brought about considerably more competition in the organic search space.

Like any effective marketing method, news spreads quickly both through the consumer market, as well as the number of people offering search engine services. Unfortunately as a result of so many trying to jump on the bandwagon, the search engines services industry also has grown to a point where a high number of businesses offering search engine services, have staff who have very little true knowledge of this ever changing industry and end up delivering mediocre results, or worse yet, result in websites being banned from the search engines altogether due to inappropriate application of search engine service techniques.

So how do you know who the right search engine services company is to work on your website for the best result for your budget?

Firstly, stay away from any search engine services firm whose only focus is on increasing your website traffic. I know that increased website traffic sounds really attractive when being pitched to you, but what if that website traffic brings you very little new business, or even worse, none at all? The number one focus of any campaign should be increasing the goals of the website. I.e. Is your number one goal to increase sales, newsletter signups, or promoting a service?

Here are some of the most important considerations when choosing the right web marketing company.

• They understand without prompting, that your business needs are not just about being able to rank highly on keywords, but what will convert new business for you.
• What their methodology is for selecting keywords. I.e. Will they choose a keyword that will meet/exceed your website goals.
• Do they have a business background and understanding the effects of marketing for a business
• Understanding of the buying cycle – this is important, to adequately capture the right consumers, at the right time, based on your offering.
• Ability to interpret web analytics results – No marketing is an exact science. Testing and measuring results is important, and to do so, the right analysis of web analytics plays a critical role.
• Understand buyer behaviour – Why do consumers act the way they do when they are on your website, viewing your product or service? What can be done to make the user experience better, and so increase the chance they will buy from your company.
• With such constant change, the ability to adapt and change quickly is important – How are they keeping up-to-date?
• Do they understand how Social Media best fits in with your business?

These are important elements to consider, otherwise you face throwing your marketing budget away, on poor results.

Looking to market your business across the web? Whether you have an existing website, need a new website, we can tailor a web marketing package that will suit your business. Contact us today.

Are you finding it difficult to decide whether Organic SEO or Pay-Per-Click are better options for your business? Well there are a few things to look at when making this decision.

• Age of the site: if your site is brand new, and you have any decent level of competition, it will be very difficult to get any kind of fast results with Organic SEO.
• Conversions to new business – Quite often, Organic SEO will bring about better conversion rates, in terms of translating to new business. But this is certainly not always the case. A well structured website, and a well put together AdWords (pay-per-click) campaign, often brings about significantly higher conversions than Organic SEO will.

A lot of the determination comes down to the type of business you are in, the level of completion in your industry, your budget, and of course how effective your website is as a marketing tool.

Both Organic SEO, and Pay-Per-Click can be important to overall results, however Pay-Per-Click is more effective for fast results, and Organic SEO is more effective for long terms results.

And remember, it is not all about getting a high number of clicks to drive traffic to your website. It is about driving the right kind of traffic to your website, to increase your companies new and existing business. This is really important, as many in search engine industry will only focus on increasing clicks to your website, instead of the most important (and obvious) factor, increased sales.

If you are not getting the search engine results you expect or would like, call us today on 02 8904 0288, or click here to apply for a free website assessment.

The herd mentality never fails to amaze me. When the pay-per-click concept was first pioneered in 1997-98 by GoTo.com (now Yahoo! Search Marketing), it was years before the model was widely accepted. GoTo virtually created the market for pay-for-performance search single-handedly and redefined how businesses market online while other search engines sat on their collective hands. Then, when it was obvious that there was “Gold in Them Thar (PPC) Hills” hundreds of search engines entered the PPC arena and hordes of advertisers followed suit.As a search engine advertising model, pay-per-click was, and is, brilliant in its simplicity. In theory, it is a perfect way to bill advertisers based on consumer interest in their advertisements. Unfortunately, in real life money can bring out the worst in human, and business, nature. In today’s search engine reality, pay-per-click should be on its last legs. But, as anyone with a knowledge of the search engine industry knows that simply isn’t the case.

Let’s first examine the main reasons why advertisers should be abandoning PPC in droves:

1. Cost

According to the Fathom Online Keyword Price Index, the average keyword price paid by online advertisers reversed a downward trend and increased 16.5% percent to $1.48 in the third quarter of 2006, up from a $1.43 per click at the end of 2005.

That’s one report. Another compiled by Click Forensics concluded that the average pay-per-click search-term cost was $4.51 across retail, financial services, health and fitness, technology and entertainment advertising. Whatever the average cost, it’s too high for most small to medium-sized businesses.

More stats and information on PPC trends (conflicting or otherwise) can be found at the links below:

SEM Services: Trends and Predictions

DoubleClick Performics 50 Search Trend Report Q1 2006

Advertisers Cutting Google AdWords Spending With Surge of Keyword Prices

2. Click Fraud

You gotta love stats. In researching this article, click fraud was cited as running anywhere from a low of 2.0% to a high of 35% – a range guaranteed to put a smile on the faces of government flunkies that like to boggle the public with reams of out-of-context figures. Since stats can be massaged to support just about any argument, I won’t bore you with a list of supporting links.

If you’re interested, just do a search on “Click Fraud percentages” or “35% Click Fraud” and review at your leisure.

3. No Accountability

PPC engines bill without providing any backup as to the origin of the clicks received. It’s the “trust us” philosophy of business. Hey, if you’re not savvy enough to look for, or find, fraud, then obviously there wasn’t any. Why would you think otherwise?

Not all advertisers, however, are content to accept the “trust us” approach to customer relations. Expect more suits like last year’s class action suit against Google. Click Fraud Concerns Hound Google

Google Agrees To $90 Million Settlement In Class Action Lawsuit Over Click Fraud

Of the three reasons noted above, the first and third are known to any PPC advertiser and the second is widely ignored. Why? Because many advertisers would prefer to believe that the big PPC players are doing their best to monitor and control the click fraud problem. And, of course, they believe this because companies that make billions of dollars from PPC ads have no vested interest in padding their bottom line and making their investors happy. Also, there’s the fact that the Internet is immune to scams and rip-offs. Plus, as we all know, history has shown that industries and companies that police themselves are above reproach.

Is this the world we live in? Remember Enron and WorldCom? In the real world, the equation reads as follows:

Money + No Accountability = YouRippedOff But to be fair, not all advertisers turn a blind eye to the threat of click fraud. The sad fact is that most are either unaware there is a problem or are ignorant of the extent of the problem. These advertisers simply do not have the technical know how to investigate click fraud as it applies to them or to determine how it affects them – by which I mean how much money they are losing.

Generally, this group is impressed with numbers. If they receive hundreds of clicks per day on a PPC ad, they are in click heaven. The same group is especially enamoured with all things Google. All other advertising models are measured against Google’s AdWords and AdSense programs and found wanting. The problem is that only God and Google really know where their clicks and impressions come from, but why worry since both subscribe to “Do No Evil”.

So, how bad is click fraud? Worse than you think and worse than has been reported and, if you’ve missed what has been reported, the links below provide an overview:

1/ The Sausage Manifesto By Jeffry K. Rohrs, December 18, 2006

2/ New Click Fraud Allegations, With a Twist By Kevin Newcomb | December 8, 2006

3/ The Silent Epidemic of Botnets By Jim Hedger, December 6, 2006

4/ The Vanishing Click-Fraud Case By Ben Elgin, December 4, 2006

5/ A True 2nd Tier PPC Click Fraud Story By Carsten Cumbrowski, November 15, 2006

6/ Click Fraud The Dark Side of Online Advertising Business Week Magazine October 2, 2006

7/ Google, Yahoo Click Fraud Audits: When Will Advertisers Demand Them? By Donna Bogatin, August 25th, 2006 ZDNet

8/ Yahoo Used in SpyWare Click Fraud Scheme By Jim Hedger, Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Still not convinced? then, listen to the following interview with the CEO of AIT Inc. Clarence Briggs who was one of the lead plaintiffs in last year’s Google class action suit:

http://www.webmasterradio.fm/breakingstory.phpThese stories should serve as a wake up call to any thinking person that a large number of clicks don’t necessarily equate to sales or money well spent. And, if you think click fraud is just part of the cost of doing business, then there are thousands of scam artists out there who are ready to be your best friend.

Can the PCC industry be saved? Not without accountability from the major players. In any other industry if you paid for something – say 100 widgets – you would expect to get 100 widgets. If you received 60 widgets, you would want to know what happened to the other 40. And, if the supplier said, “trust me, I sent a 100″, you would demand proof.

Even when there are external and independent monitoring agencies working on behalf of consumers and investors, fraud occurs, as in the case of WorldCom and Enron. When an industry polices itself – well, you figure it out.

So, if pay-per-click is a poor choice for your advertising dollars because of rising costs, fraud and lack of industry accountability, what are the alternatives?

1. Organic SEO (Search Engine Optimization): The blanket term used to describe the unpaid, algorithm-driven search results of a search engine, and the methodologies used to achieve such website rankings. (Source: http://www.mediumblue.com/newsletters/organic-seo.html)

Entails a learning curve to become knowlegeable in accepted SEO techniques but worth the time and effort given that it’s generally accepted that around 80%-90% of all traffic to websites originates from search engines. If time is money to you, hire a reputable SEO consultant. Use the savings from the money you would have spent on a PPC campaign.

2. Paid Inclusion: Refers to the payment of a one-time fee for placement of a website listing within a search engine’s paid or organic search results. Not as popular an advertising model as it once was (read not as much money in it for search engines) but could be poised to make a comeback.

This model used to be the main revenue generator for a number of search engines with Inktomi being the best known proponent. Advertisers would pay an annual fee to appear in Inktomi’s search results as well as the results of other engines powered by Inktomi. The hook was frequent crawling (every 48 hours) which allowed webmasters to see the results of their SEO efforts quickly.

Paid inclusion hasn’t died, but it has morphed with variations still being offered by Yahoo! and other engines. Probably, the most interesting variation was launched about 18 months ago by ExactSeek.com and the ISEDN (Independent Search Engine & Directory Network). In a nutshell, the ISEDN offers a hybrid advertising model which offers rotating top 10 site listing exposure across a growing network of smaller search engines as well as web, blog and article directories (currently, there are 260 ISEDN members) for flat fee rates. Pricing is based on time rather than keyword bidding. Buying a single ad listing for 3 months costs $12 and $36 for 12 months. The model is simple and affordable, offering all of the advantages of the PPC model without any of the drawbacks.

More details at: http://www.exactseek.com/featured_listings.html

3. Cost Per Action: From an advertiser’s perspective, this could be the ideal advertising model since the advertiser would only pay for an ad when a specific action had occurred such as a sale or a registration. Back in June of 2006, there were several reports that Google was testing a version of its AdWords product using the CPA model. Not much has been heard since. The CPA model is widely used in the affiliate and lead generation industries, but don’t hold your breath waiting for wholesale adoption by the search engines.

4. Pay-Per-Percentage: Put forward by Microsoft as a solution to both click and impression fraud. Below is a quote from a Microsoft research paper:

“In this system, an advertiser picks a keyword, e.g. “cameras” and purchases, perhaps through bidding, a certain percentage of all impressions for that keyword. For instance, an advertiser might pay $1.00 to MSN Search. In return, the advertiser might receive 10% of all impressions for “camera” for 1 week. What does this mean? It means that for 1 week, one out of ten times that someone searches for the word “camera”, they will see the ad.”

You can read the full abstract for an in-depth explanation.

The Microsoft PPP advertising model was proposed, perhaps not coincidentally, around the same time Google was testing the CPA model. Again, not much has been heard since then.

Will any of the above alternatives dethrone PPC? Time will tell. Which brings us back full circle to the herd mentality. If and when the advertiser herd twigs to the fact that PPC is a hype driven industry with very little substance and begins to move to a new advertising model, expect PPC engines to shift advertising gears faster than you can say “Who wants to stay a billionaire”.

About The Author

Mel Strocen is CEO of the Jayde Online Network of websites and founder of the Independent Search Engine & Directory Network. The Jayde network is comprised of more than 20 websites, including ExactSeek.com, SiteProNews.com, SEO-News.com,and GoArticles.com.

During the time where your website is in the Google sandbox it may be worth working with a Pay-Per-Click campaign to bring extra business in until you achieve the “organic” (rankings on the left hand side that are not pay-per-click) high rankings. The pay-per-click rankings do not have the same level of popularity as the links down the left hand side, but it is a great way to bring traffic in immediately, or when you are targeting a keyword that is very competitive.

With Google AdWords you create your own ads, choose keywords to help match your ads to your audience and pay only when someone clicks on them. The cost is fully controllable by you, and you can set both a daily and monthly budget. At the point where your budget is met, your ad will no longer appear in the AdWords listings.

Contact us to find out how we can help you manage your Pay-Per-Click Campaign.