What’s a search marketer to make from this panel data? Should you be focusing more of your efforts on Yahoo! and Bing? Is Google in decline?

A good first step is to look at your actual site data. What is your current share from each search engine, and how has it changed since last year? Since your paid search spend largely determines the traffic you receive from that effort, just look at your natural search data. Of course your natural search visibility can also change quite a bit year-over-year, but if so, hopefully it does in all engines.

I pulled this data for 12 enterprise retail, travel, services, and technology sites with millions of combined natural search visits in April, and their Bing-powered search visits in April 2012 with the change from a year earlier are:

As you can see, these 12 sites have Bing-powered natural search shares of anywhere from 4.5% to 35.7% last month, and also big differences in whether Bing and Yahoo! have grown or declined in share over the past year.

Three takeaways of mine from this data:

1. There isn’t one right answer here. Any of these sites could be considered successful in their search presence. They sell different types of products or offer services to different types of people who may use different engines. For example, the two sites at the Bing-heavy end of the table above cater largely to an older audience, while the technology site at the top favors a very tech-savvy crowd. Depending on what your site’s goals are, you may naturally attract attention from a unique portion of the overall online audience.
2. Still pay attention to Yahoo! and Bing separately too. For most sites, if the Bing-powered share rose or fell at all, both Yahoo! and Bing contributed to that in sync. For the Services site above with a 22% Bing-powered share, though, it’s 0.1 point change since 2011 was because Yahoo! was down 2.7% and Bing was up 2.8%. So the story isn’t always about Bing-powered engines stealing share from Google, or vice versa.
3. Google is still a clear #no. 1 – and might be growing. For 8 of the 12 sites above, the Bing-powered share actually declined year-over-year. For those 8 sites, Google’s share grew an average of 3.1% over last April. If you have opportunities to grow your visibility in Google, focusing on that could yield quite a bit more traffic than Bing and Yahoo! might drive.

It’s clear that while panel data can help inform some macro search trends, its usefulness at your brand’s size in your industry has its limitations. The sites above have a consistent, growing natural search presence across all 3 major engines, but do you?

At iCrossing, we’re believers in “connectedness.” One aspect of being a connected brand is visibility – are you visible where your potential customers are searching, when they are searching?

Jon Maxson is a director of natural search at iCrossing

One of the first changes to take effect came in late October of last year when Google began encrypting searches for people that are signed-in to their Google accounts. As a result, analytics platforms are no longer able to gather referring data for signed-in users, including which keywords drove the visit. In those instances, the keyword would be shown as ‘Keyword Unavailable’ or some variation thereof. Google’s own Matt Cutts estimated that the percentage of traffic affected by this would be in the single digits. However, this seems to not be the case. Percentages of ‘Keyword Unavailable’ have been steadily increasing since November 2011 (I’ve seen some as high as 30%) and will likely continue its upward trend in the coming months as Firefox browsers are set to start using Google Secure Search by default. You can read more about Google Secure Search here and here.

The most recent change that Google made in the name of protecting their user’s privacy came early last month. It is the Google referrer meta tag, and is likely going to be another source of frustration for some search marketers as the change could potentially cause natural search traffic to be reported as non-search referrals in their analytics systems. Google has changed how it reports referrer information for using its Chrome browser which has roughly a 38% share of browser the market. In it, Google is using the referrer meta tag to in order to simplify the referring URL.

Example

To give an example, if a person searched for the term ‘iCrossing’ in Google and clicked on the first result, the referring URL might look like this:

http://www.google.com/search?q=icrossing&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari

For a signed in user, the referring URL might look like this:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CKUBEIwQM

Analytic systems will determine that the visit originated from search by looking at the “q=” part of the URL, which is present in both examples. However, the new changes made by Google will essentially strip the referring URL of all the characters after the top level domain. For those using the Chrome browser, the referring URL will look like this:

https://www.google.com

As the URL in the example above is missing the “q=” component, analytic systems could potentially count this as a non-search referral from Google.com. If not adjusted, natural search visits data being reported on is likely to see a sharp decrease beginning in April.

So what do we do now? According to Google, this is not something to be too concerned about if using Google Analytics, as it will supposedly count things correctly. Furthermore, according to Search Engine Land, Google has also said “…we’re in the process of reaching out to a number of other analytics vendors to notify them about this in advance.”

With this being said, I was curious to see if any of my clients who use analytic systems other than Google Analytics were affected by this recent change, and in fact it seems they have. I looked at two clients (one that uses Adobe Site Catalyst and another that uses iCrossing’s own Interest2Action), both of which saw sizeable month-over-month decreases in natural search visits in April. In both cases, I found that instances of “https://www.google.com” as the referring URL increased nearly tenfold from March to April. However, in looking at some of the May data, it seems that things are returning to normal levels so perhaps the respective analytics systems have already adjusted to these changes.

Whether this continues to be an issue in the coming months remains to be seen, but if you’re seeing decreases in natural search traffic in April, this certainly may have contributed to it.

Jason Stinson is a manager of natural search reporting at iCrossing

Doug Bryan is vice president of analytics for iCrossing

I first noticed the Dutch Bros. Coffee drive-through locations during my daily drive to and from the iCrossing Scottsdale office. We really didn’t have drive-through coffee shops where I formerly lived in the Midwest; so the little blue-and-white Dutch Bros. Coffee hut kept catching my eye. It wasn’t long before I eventually stopped and placed my first order.

The people there genuinely made me feel as if I were their favorite customer of the day. When I told them it was my first time trying Dutch Bros., and that I was new to the area, they wouldn’t let me pay. They couldn’t have been happier to give me a free drink. I was already hooked before they refused my money.

Later I learned that during all new-store openings, Dutch Bros. Coffee personnel give away free coffee all day on their first day of business. So my experience was just business as (un)usual for them.

Subsequent stops of mine at DB have been just as pleasant. I’ve never been able to catch them in a mood anything less than being thrilled to see me. And although I do pay for my drink most of the time, I get the occasional surprise of being told something such as, “You’re the one-millionth customer, or something, so you’re drink is FREE!”

Dutch Bros. has built itself on customer satisfaction from the ground up. The company hires only the people that are right for their business (who are almost always existing DB customers — so they know what’s expected of them). The word gets out, not through big advertising campaigns, but when customers brag on the brand . . . and they definitely do. Good buzz has led to the launch of more than 170 stores in seven western U.S. states.

It’s no surprise to see DB was recently ranked by J.D. Power & Associates as the company highest in customer satisfaction compared to other coffee companies in its 2012 Specialty Coffee Retailer Satisfaction Report. (Take that, hipster-barista-burned-coffee-place-we-won’t-specifically-name.)

Moreover, giving back to their local communities matters a lot to DB franchises, and their customers love to be a part of these important causes.

Each DB franchise donates a portion of its gross profits to local charitable causes, whether to help an established charity or to simply meet a special need that’s brought to their attention such as one man’s medical bills. The stores also work together on a number of fundraising events.

In October 2009, co-founder Dane Boersma (one of the two founding brothers) died of Lou Gehrig’s disease. In his honor, all locations annually donate one designated day’s proceeds to the Muscular Dystrophy Association (DanesDrive.org).

Connectedness happens between people, even if that relationship is only measured in seconds or minutes. Dutch Bros. locations succeed in thousands of those relationships every day.

Can I wait 10 minutes until I get to the office and drink free coffee? Sure, but it’s the people of DB that bring me back for more interaction. People make the Dutch Bros. Coffee brand a connected brand.

Join the iCrossing connectedness conversation.

Michael Herman is a natural search optimization strategist at iCrossing

The zombie craze seems to have first infiltrated our culture through the fears associated with voodoo and the infamous witch doctor. This cultural journey has carried us along a spectrum of emotions from fears of flesh-eating monsters knocking on our doors to a fascination that borders (for some) on obsession with a zombie apocalypse. (Yes, my friends and I are planning for one – just in case.) Film makers and writers have parlayed our fascination with the undead into celebrated entertainment ranging from The Walking Dead illustrated novels and TV show to movies such as Dawn of the Dead, The Serpent and the Rainbow, and the cult classic Shaun of the Dead. Many other brands have become more connected by tapping into our fascination with those creatures and their rise to fame.

Zombies Make It Easy to Stay Engaged

A good story can compel us and motivate us to take action — whether to run in fear or, well, just to run. Perhaps the best example of this notion is the ZombiesRun! app by Six to Start. This London company specializes in telling tales, touting, “We are next-gen storytellers.”

Six to Start’s talent for storytelling shows. The ZombiesRun! app is the story of Runner 5, who finds him/herself flying in a helicopter to Abel Township to help an encampment of survivors following the zombie apocalypse. The chopper is shot down and the adventure begins. You soon learn that you are one of several runners whose job it is to gather supplies, scout out neighboring areas, distract zombies, and so on. Furthermore, you are part of a larger mission but you have no idea what it is. Evidence of sinister activities in neighboring camps becomes more and more prevalent. But the origin of the apocalypse remains a mystery, hinted at only through a conspiracy-driven group that you can follow on Twitter (@netrophil).

What’s behind this experience? Getting you to run. The app tracks your distance and time while you run, interspersing bits of the story in between your playlist of songs. It has GPS as well as an accelerometer so that you can run on a treadmill or outdoors and still have your speed and distance tracked.

As a result, now I look forward to running, and I’m actively trying to find more time to run.

Zombies Can Tap into, and Expand, Existing Brand Loyalties

LEGO continues to extend its stellar brand of using imagination as a platform for success. Take the coveted role of a LEGO Master Builder (only 12 existed in the United States last year), add in a community obsessed with zombies, and, voila, you get the LEGO Zombie Apocalypse page on Facebook.

The About section specifically touts the opportunity to become a LEGO Zombie Master Builder. You’ll also find a link to Bricks of the Dead, a LEGO comic site about Zombies (also on Facebook). And let’s not forget the Zombie Outbreak Facebook page.

While those are not LEGO-sponsored pages, LEGO is being smart by allowing these communities to grow and literally build out their brand for them – in this case with zombies. Too often a brand gets caught up in the risks associated with a community-owned conversation around their brand to recognize the value it can bring to their business.

Zombies Can Bring Your Brand Greater Exposure

Now consider a government agency that could be considered one of the greatest sources of survival information during a catastrophe. Yet, no one was visiting its website. Solution? Yep. zombies. The Center for Disease Control decided to take all of its information for surviving in a disaster and wrap it within the context of how to prepare for a zombie apocalypse. Brilliant. The approach allowed the agency to reinvigorate its message and tap into an existing fan base to improve its visibility online.

Zombies may connect us with our fears, but more importantly for some companies, they offer a great opportunity for connecting their brands with their customers.

Join the iCrossing connectedness conversation.

Bill Schwingel is vice president of delivery management for iCrossing

Search + Social

I’ll start with the MLB-supported Social Media Clubhouse, which was literally my first stop for plugging inside the Giants organization. The beauty of this widget on the team’s site is two-fold: first, all it takes is a simple click on the widget to connect you to the Giants on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ without the hassle of visiting each site and searching for the team; and, second, you enjoy added value of having real-time content displayed on the the site. On Facebook, the Giants share game day stories, trivia, photos, and behind-the-scenes interviews with players. On Twitter the Giants converse with fans, retweet and responding to direct messages in a timely fashion. And by actively posting content to Google+ and optimizing their site for search, the Giants really hit a home run:

Connecting with the Community

As the city of San Francisco aims for zero waste by 2020, AT&T Ballpark has “hit a homerun” according to the EPA by achieving a 75 percent recycling rate (one of the highest among all stadiums). This is just one way the Giants are leading by example. Through special events, corporate sponsorships, foundations and of course the fans, the Giants Community Fund has donated more than $14 million to community efforts. And just this season, the Giants have teamed up with Hanwha Solar to install new solar panels around the stadium and with the partnership, a fundraising program named “How Far Did It Fly?” to benefit Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco (BGCSF). I also try to live a healthy lifestyle, so when the Giants announced on Facebook the first-ever Matt Cain Bobblehead exclusive to those who register for The Giant Race, a half marathon around the bay, you better believe it peaked my interest. Hey, it’s not Bay to Breakers, but I can assure you fans will come out to connect with their favorite players and get in shape. The commitment of the Giants to environmental responsibility and promoting a healthy lifestyle would not be possible without the support of the team’s fans and the community.

Offering Something for Everyone

The Giants have hands-down some of the best game-day promotions and special events. All baseball teams have their promotions, but in a city that is known best for its amazing food, wine, music and tech, the Giants give you a great chance for fans to get a taste of what the city has to offer. If you’re a foodie, check out SF Chefs Night, the Garlic Fest or the Annual Wine Fest. You can also connect at a Tweetup @ the Park, the annual Slumber Party in the outfield, or, for my fellow Deadheads out there, Jerry Garcia’s 70th Birthday Celebration later this summer (check out the full lineup here). With more than 80 home games during the season, the Giants are connecting with existing fans and attracting new ones by embracing the local community and provide a little something for everyone.

In the article, “Why Retargeting Is the Hottest Area of Ad Tech,” Digiday asserted that recent advances in technology are causing brands to renew their commitment to sending ads and offers to you across the digital world based on your activity on their websites. The article elicited groans of frustration from some of my colleagues and friends. Retargeting? Who wants to be targeted with offers each time you browse someone’s inventory?

The concerns are absolutely right on. I know I don’t like to be sent offers such as the following one from Athleta for a female sports bra that landed in my in-box:

For the record, I’m not interested in female sports bras. But I do like to shop at Banana Republic and Gap, which are sister brands of Athleta. Experiences like mine give retargeting a bad name. However, the real issue is not effective retargeting – but simply sharing engaging, relevant content across in-bound and outbound marketing, whether on your social spaces or in paid search. When you achieve relevance, no one cares if they are being “retargeted” by a brand. I sure don’t mind: I always read the Banana Republic offers that I see online. Content from Banana Republic is relevant – from Athleta, not so much.

Don’t want to be known as one of “those” re-targeters? Offer relevant content based on audience insight.

David Deal is iCrossing’s vice president of marketing

OPPO

I first heard of OPPO from my close friend Eric, who happens to be a music and film aficionado. After watching a movie on my home theater system, Eric turned to me and said, “Loved your movie and your home theater. But you have to check out OPPO.”

The words of a respected high-tech lover shared with me in private (as opposed to this very public blog post) were like a tantalizing invitation to join a little club. OPPO did not advertise. It did not need to do so. Eric acted as OPPO’s recruiter.

With Eric’s assistance (and note his role throughout the decision making process), I found a Blu-ray player with some specific features I sought, such as the ability to play Blu-rays, DVD-Audios, and Super Audio Compact Discs (which are collector’s items that play music in high-definition).

The moment the product arrived, I knew I was in for an experience. Most consumer electronics arrive in a boring box. My OPPO unit was housed in a durable black cloth package (like a pair of Allen Edmunds shoes) that doubles as a carrying case. An HDMI cable (which you typically need to buy separately) was housed in a sturdy black box, like a piece of jewelry. The owner’s manual was embossed with raised type on the cover and printed on sleek paper stock.

Since the day I unwrapped my OPPO Blu-ray, OPPO has deepened its relationship with me by providing me hours of movie watching and music listening pleasure in high-definition. I won’t bore you with the details, but the unit is an incredible workhouse, with a nice upconverting feature that even make lower-end DVDs look good. A connected experience starts with the product.

But whenever I’ve had a question or encountered a hiccup, I’ve also gotten great service. I’ve been able to call OPPO customer service and find a knowledgeable human being without having to endure painful phone trees. OPPO’s technicians know a lot about the entire movie watching experience, not just the OPPO player. I once called because I could not get the 500 Days of Summer Blu-ray to work, and the technician alerted me to a bug plaguing editions of that particular movie (rather than take me down a rabbit hole diagnosing the unit itself, which was unnecessary).

OPPO is a cult for the high-end set. I’m a happy member.

Join the iCrossing connectedness conversation.

David Deal is iCrossing’s vice president of marketing

Creating Connectedness through Visibility

For months leading up to this season’s premiere episode of Mad Men on March 25, AMC began an aggressive visibility campaign. The “Mad Men Is Back” campaign flowed seamlessly through social networks, online videos for each character, and even integrating current AMC programming with its commercials. I know I watched the “Joan Is Back” video a handful of times (girl crush!), and actually laughed out loud while seeing the “Mad Men Survivors” commercial during the final episodes of The Walking Dead. This exciting, constant messaging increased the level of anticipation for the latest season with each new message.

Engaging with Viewers

Not only is the content of the show enough to draw me in obsessively every week, but AMC’s Mad Men website features unique, exclusive content to engage the show’s viewers like never before. After each episode airs, highlights and the “most talked about scenes” are posted, as well as photos from the episode itself. But the content doesn’t end here. There are episode-specific trivia games, as well as online chats so viewers can join together and talk about what they just saw. And Mad Men continues to engage its viewers by offering interactive online games such as the “Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Job Interview Game” and “Mad Men Yourself,” where you can actually create Mad Men-ized characters of yourself and place them in thematic situations. For diehard fans of the show, like me, this site is the place to be to fill that weekly void left by the show after it airs on Sunday nights.

Other than continuing to produce great storylines and complex characters, Mad Men succeeds by connecting its viewers through all media channels. I get my Mad Men fix daily through Twitter, on its website any time I need to see a video or play a fun game, and definitely while watching the award-winning series on AMC every week.

Join the iCrossing connectedness conversation.

Dana Notman is a search engine optimization strategist at iCrossing

Before I moved to San Francisco last year, I was a brand loyalist of Starbucks. When I lived in Chicago (especially in the winter), a Starbuck’s Venti Skinny Vanilla Latte was my saving grace on the walk to work each morning. All of this changed when I moved to San Francisco. Not because of anything Starbucks did (I think Starbucks is an incredibly loved and connected brand). Simply because I discovered Philz Coffee. (The iCrossing San Francisco office is conveniently located near one.)

Philz Coffee embodies connectedness, or more personal relationships with audiences. When customers first walk into Philz, they are immediately greeted by the smiling faces of staff who actually want to be there and are ready to help. It can get overwhelming trying to decide what to order among the more than 20 different blends available. The staff are always willing to listen to what you like/don’t like, and then recommend a blend to suit you perfectly. Philz makes each cup of coffee one cup at a time, allowing for customized cups of coffee for each visitor. When the coffee is ready, the staff ask that you taste it before you leave to make sure it’s exactly what you want. Everyone at Philz – from the minute you walk in to when you leave – treats you like an old friend.

What I appreciate most about Philz is that everyone here consistently delivers connected experiences. Every single time I go to Philz, I know I’m going to get a great product. But more importantly, I know I will have a good experience. I do have a better day afterwards (not to mention the high of having an amazing cup of joe).

More brands should take tips from Philz to enable connectedness with their customers:

• Consistently strive to deliver high-quality experiences for your audience.

• Listen to what your audience wants and respond appropriately to those needs.

• Make people feel like they are being listened to and valued by communicating personally and in real time.

• Try to “better people’s days” more often.

For those who live in the Bay area, if you haven’t had a chance to try Philz Coffee, I’d run to the nearest location. For those who live outside the Bay area, book a flight now. Philz is that good.

Join the iCrossing connectedness conversation.

Kristen Deye is senior public relations manager for iCrossing