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Search Engine Watch Blog
Provides constant updates of the latest search engine marketing and other search news from Search Engine Watch and across the web.
Last Update: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:04:48 -0500
How Search Marketers Can Use Landing Page Testing to Influence Offline Ad Campaigns
<p>Search marketers deal with <a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3630178">landing pages</a> everyday in their work, but not all landing pages are created for paid search campaigns. Many landing pages, or sometimes entire sites are created for offline advertising on television, radio, and magazine ads.</p>
<p>Should these landing pages be tested as well? I talked to <a href="https://www.google.com/analytics/siteopt/exptlist?account=2123041&hl=en">Google Website Optimizer's</a> Tom Leung to get his thoughts on how testing can influence offline campaigns.</p>
<p>Leung said there are two ways that tools like <a href="http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080416-122032">Website Optimizer</a> can be used in offline campaigns:</p>
<ol><li>As already mentioned, to test landing pages created for traffic coming in from offline ad campaigns.</li><li>Using paid search or display ad campaigns to make informed decisions on creatives designed for offline ad campaigns.</ol>
<p>The second point really got my attention. Leung expanded by saying that SEM's can use landing page testing as a "bargaining chip to get a seat at the table with other marketers in your organization."</p>
<p>This information gained from testing is highly useful to marketers planning offline campaigns. As a search marketer, you can use testing and analytics tools to be the one in their department or agency who knows the most about a target audience. That knowledge is highly useful to your colleagues, and can help you work more as an integrated team.</p>
<p>Even though offline and online campaigns can generate interest from consumers with different expectations, at the very least, testing can rule out things that don't work. An image, text, or highlighted feature that just doesn't resonate can be discovered through landing page testing. Marketers can test these factors in a paid search or other online ad test, and use the results to develop creatives for offline ads.</p>
<p>Online ad tests can also be used in advance of an offline-to-web ad campaign.</p>
<p>For offline traffic driven to landing pages, you can use those preliminary tests to narrow down the number of landing page options for the initial traffic driven from the offline ad. When the offline traffic begins to arrive (and you're expecting enough traffic to run a test), you can test the first visitors. You don't want to test more than 1 page per 100 conversions. Multivariate testing should generally be reserved for large, national campaigns.</p>
<p>WiderFunnel Marketing used Website Optimizer for Tourism BC's TV-to-Web ad campaign for HelloBC.com. According to a published <a href="http://www.widerfunnel.com/proof/case-studies/increasing-drtv-roi-on-landing-page">case study</a>, the campaign targeted the Los Angeles and San Francisco markets. Tourism BC experienced a 52% conversion rate (filling out a web form), up 7% from the previous year. </p>
<p>Even though search marketing has been gaining ground for years, SEMs still may find themselves struggling to lend their insight to traditional marketing methods that have been around for decades. Landing page testing is not just a must for SEMs in their own work but can be a strength to participate in the greater strategy at hand.</p>
<p>What do you think about landing page testing and integrating marketing campaigns? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.</p><div class="feedflare">
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Realtor.com Reveals Increase in Local Market Searches
<p>Though the housing sector has been in turmoil for about a year now, last month showed a glimmer of hope with new home sales up 2.4% month over month in July.</p>
<p>Real estate search site Realtor.com is reaping the benefit of the little good news there is out there for the real estate industry. In July, Realtor.com saw increases in searches for certain local markets around the country, and they are:</p>
<ul><li>Stockton-Lodi, CA 140.9% </li><li>Las Vegas, NV 93.9%</li><li>Fort Myers-Cape Coral, FL 69.5%</li><li>Detroit, MI 51.8%</li><li>Washington, DC-MD-VA-WV, VA 49.1%</li></ul>
<p>As a result, traffic to the site is up 9.5% year-over-year, despite an overall industry traffic slump declining 1% year-over-year.</p>
<p>Related Reading:<br />
<a href="http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080822-114512">Women More Likely Than Men to Begin Real Estate Search Online</a><br />
<a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3626196">The Impact of User Registration on Generating Real Estate Leads</a></p><div class="feedflare">
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Judge Throws Out Copyright Infringement Suit Against Online Video Site Veoh
<p>A California federal court judge, Judge Howard Lloyd, has thrown out a copyright infringement suit against <a href="http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/070726-125220">online video site Veoh</a>. The suit was brought by adult entertainment company IO Group.</p>
<p>The judge's reasoning was that Veoh is protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's (DMCA) safe harbor provisions. Since Veoh takes quick action in light of copyright issues, they are not acting illegally.</p>
<p>“Veoh has a strong DMCA policy, takes active steps to limit incidents of infringement on its website and works diligently to keep unauthorized works off its site,” wrote Judge Lloyd.</p>
<p>Guess who loves this ruling? Google. It's currently facing its own <a href="http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080707-110911">copyright infrigement suit brought against YouTube by Viacom</a>. Because the Veoh case was heard in California, it doesn't set precedent for the YouTube case in New York. But Google hopes the Veoh ruling is still influential.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/youtube-praises-dismissal-of-copyright-suit-against-veoh/index.html">NYT</a></p><div class="feedflare">
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Market Motive Search Marketing Certification Program
<p>Market Motive announced today that they are launching a new search engine marketing certification program. The program is designed to complement their existing online training programs. Certification programs will cover SEO, web analytics, and paid search. All courses leading up to the certification are taught by known industry experts.</p>
<p>More details for the search engine marketing certification program can be found at <a href="http://www.marketmotive.com/search-marketing-certification.php">http://www.marketmotive.com/search-marketing-certification.php</a>. This web page includes a 2 minute introductory video by Michael Stebbins, CEO and co-founder of Market Motive.</p>
<p>Costs of the program begin at $299. Existing members of Market Motive get access to the practitioner level testing and certification at no extra cost.</p><div class="feedflare">
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SEW Experts: Get Links Now: Make a Difference, Make Connections
<p><img src="http://searchenginewatch.com/_imgs/authors/lewis_sage.jpg" alt="Search Engine Watch Expert - Sage Lewis" style="border: 1px solid #666666" height="70" width="70" hspace="5" vspace="5" align="right">Want to solve the link building riddle? Stop thinking about money and start thinking about something bigger. In today's <a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/sew_experts/social_links">link building</a> column, "<a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/3630689">Get Links Now: Make a Difference, Make Connections</a>," Sage Lewis shows you how getting outside of your own little world can expand your horizons, as well as your link portfolio. </p>
<p><font style="font-weight: bold; color:#D1E0F0">»</font> <a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3630689"><font style="color:#336699">Full story</font></a><br />
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SEW Experts: Leveraging Social Media to Educate
<p><img src="http://searchenginewatch.com/_imgs/authors/jones_ron.jpg" alt="Search Engine Watch Expert - Ron Jones" style="border: 1px solid #666666" height="70" width="70" hspace="5" vspace="5" align="right">There's been lots of hype about social media lately. But what's it mean from a business perspective? How can it help you educate potential clients or customers, or spread the word about your product or idea so that people are talking about it among themselves? In today's <a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/sew_experts/sem_edu">SEM.edu</a> column, "<a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/3630690">Leveraging Social Media to Educate</a>," Ron Jones explores the basics of social media, and tells you how to get started using it to help spread that awareness you seek. </p>
<p><font style="font-weight: bold; color:#D1E0F0">»</font> <a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3630690"><font style="color:#336699">Full story</font></a><br />
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Google's Search Experiments are Sometimes Subtle
<p>Have you ever been around a friend who points out a flaw about themselves and you say, "I would never have noticed that if you hadn't pointed it out?"</p>
<p>Google is doing the same thing sans flaws.</p>
<p>On the <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/search-experiments-large-and-small.html">Official Google Blog</a>, Ben Gomes explains that sometimes Google's search experiments are very subtle. They'll test things like white space in the search results or how big the plus box should be next to a stock quote link.</p>
<p>The differences among the options being tested are very difficult to detect without being told what's going on. But the results of tests show that even a small number of pixels can make a big difference. For example, it could mean the difference between a searcher spending a lot of time on one search result - and not necessarily the first one - or a searcher being able to scan the results more easily. And then Google has to decide which is better. </p>
<p>All in all, Google's search experiments are not always about the alogorithm. What do you think of these experiments? Leave your thoughts in the comments!</p>
<p>Related Reading:<br />
<a href="http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080620-110854">Google News Testing Updates</a><br />
<a href="http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/070928-133357">Google Testing Time Elements In Search Results</a><br />
<a href="http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060605-093552">Google Testing Expandable "More Google" Links On Home Page & More</a><br />
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Searches for Hybrids Up 43% from March to July 2008
<p>Recently, <a href="http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080818-112327">CarMax released a new search feature allowing car buyers to search for vehicles by Miles Per Gallon</a> (MPG). Now, they're releasing data shedding light on that decision.</p>
<p>From the period beginning March 2008 and ending in July, searches for hybrid vehicles increased by 43%. The spike is, of course, driven by high gas prices during that time, and hybrids get great gas mileage.</p>
<p>CarMax is also pointing out that cost alone isn't a reason to switch to hybrids. It can take years to make up for the extra cost, and thousands of non-hybrid cars in its inventory can get up to 25 to over 30 MPG.</p>
<p>This is such a great example of what a company can do by paying attention to analytics and what consumers are searching for. It also shows the importance of <a href="http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3337221">investing in a solid site search</a>.</p>
<p>How does this inspire you to do the same in your search marketing efforts? Give us your ideas in the comments section.</p><div class="feedflare">
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Ask Relaunches AskKids.com with Updated Design, Cool Drawing Feature
<p>As a new homeschooling parent, finding online learning resources that are safe, well-designed, and fun for my kids is important - but inexplicably difficult. That's why I was thrilled to learn about Ask.com's expansion and redesign of <a href="http://www.AskKids.com">AskKids.com</a>.</p>
<p>I've already found Ask.com itself to be a great search engine for my kids, with its suggested searches and images in the sidebars.</p>
<p>But AskKids.com gives me even more confidence. Plus, there's a SUPER FUN feature on the front page.</p>
<p><img alt="askkids0808.jpg" src="http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/img/askkids0808.jpg" width="580" /></p>
<p>At the bottom right corner, there's a box with a pen, pencil and highlighter. You can grab one of the utensils with your mouse and draw directly on the page! It rocks. There's also a tab for "stickers" that you can put on your drawing.</p>
<p><img alt="askkids0808draw.jpg" src="http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/img/askkids0808draw.jpg" width="422" height="439" /></p>
<p>Moving on to the search side of things, on the front page, in addition to the traditional search box, there are 5 categories kids can go directly to: Schoolhouse, Movies, Games, Video, and Images.</p>
<p>Clicking on one of the categories brings up even more options along with traditional search results.</p>
<p><img alt="askkids0808schoolhouse.jpg" src="http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/img/askkids0808schoolhouse.jpg" width="580" /></p>
<p>Conducting a traditional search was much like doing so on Ask.com There's only one sidebar, on the left, and no images.</p>
<p><img alt="askkids0808searchresults.png" src="http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/img/askkids0808searchresults.png" width="580" /></p>
<p>I do have two criticisms:<br />
1. The design theme is built around a traditional school setting. Kids are so much more than school. The background design of notebook paper is not a great way to reach kids, who learn much better through visual and interactive approahches and are far more tech-savvy than traditional, old school (pun fully intended) educational methods.</p>
<p>2. The search results have ads taking up a good portion of the space. The same criticism can be made of the Ask.com page. Being user-friendly and not ad friendly almost always wins the day and it would be nice if Ask could figure out a more user-friendly way to make the moolah.</p>
<p>Still, the homepage design is at least better than the old version:</p>
<p><img alt="oldaskkids.png" src="http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/img/oldaskkids.png" width="580"/></p>
<p>What do you think of the new AskKids.com? Leave us your impressions in the comments.</p>
<p>Related Reading:<br />
<a href="http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080514-100043">Student Searches: The Top 15 Searches for the K-12 Set</a><br />
<a href="http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/080310-092054">The New Multitaskers: Kids Split Attention Between TV, Internet</a><br />
<a href="http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=1381161">Content for Kids</a><br />
<a href="http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3625510">Learning from Our Kids</a><br />
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AdWords Report Center Will Remove Older Reports September 2
<p><a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3628019">Google AdWords</a> will remove older reports from its Report Center beginning September 2. Reports that are 6 months old or older, or before March 2, 2008, will be removed. </p>
<p>The data will not be removed, just the reports.</p>
<p>Until September 2, you can export these reports to Google Spreadsheets or .CSV files, Excel, HTML or another format.</p>
<p>Expect the purging of 6 month old or older reports to happen periodically going forward.</p>
<p>via <a href="http://adwords.blogspot.com/2008/08/adwords-report-center-summer-cleaning.html">Inside AdWords</a></p><div class="feedflare">
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