The Adsense King

Defining invalid clicks and click fraud

2008-08-10T20:22:00.001-07:00

We often receive questions from new publishers about what these two terms mean, and we'd like to help you understand the difference.

Invalid clicks are clicks for which we decide not to charge our AdWords advertisers, since they may artificially drive up advertiser cost or publisher revenue. These include extraneous clicks without any value to the advertiser, such as the second click of a double-click. They also include many other types of clicks that we've determined aren't motivated by genuine user interest.

"Invalid clicks" are often confused with "clicking on your own ads". However, we'd like to stress that invalid clicks are generally any clicks that artificially inflate advertiser cost or publisher revenue, regardless of their source.

Click fraud is a subset of invalid clicks that are generated with malicious or fraudulent intent -- in other words, clicks that are intended to drive up advertiser cost or publisher revenue artificially. Sources for these clicks include, but are not limited to:
A publisher clicking on his own ads, or encouraging clicks on his ads
Users or family members clicking to support the site / publisher
Third-party programs with user incentives, such as paid-to-click services and click-exchanges
Automated clicking tools, robots, or other deceptive software
The same principles above apply to ad impressions and conversions as well. Some sources of invalid impressions include, but are not limited to:
Excessive page refreshes, generated either manually or automatically
Third-party programs with user incentives, such as paid-to-surf or auto-surf programs
Third-party programs for purchasing fixed amounts of traffic, e.g. "$10 for 1,000 page views"

As a reminder, any method that artificially generates clicks, impressions, or conversions is strictly prohibited by our program policies. You can also find more information about these topics in our Invalid Clicks FAQ.

How to Find Advertisers for Your Website: The Ultimate Guide

2008-07-31T18:49:00.000-07:00

[Firstly i would just like to give credit to Daniel Scocco at www.dailyblogtips.com for this arcticle that i have reposted here. its an excellent article. Make sure you visit their site for tons more great articles on blogs.]

Direct advertising sales is arguably the best method to monetize a
website. Finding advertisers for your site and actually closing the
deals, however, is not as straight forward. Over the past 6 months I
had more than 10 high profile companies sponsoring Daily Blog Tips, and
through out this article I will share what I have learned along the way.

The Pros

More money: The first advantage of selling your
own ads is the fact that you will cut the middlemen out, increasing
your revenue potential. Suppose you sell text link ads on your sidebar
through a certain company, and the text links sell for $50 monthly.
Since you are using the company network to sell the ads, they will eat
50% of the price, and you will end up earning only $25 monthly for each
text link. If someone is willing to pay $50 for a text link on your
site, though, it means that they are getting $50 of value out of it.
Why, then, should you share that with someone else?
Independence: Sure, large advertising networks
have access to a wider pool of advertisers, and they have more
credibility to close the deals. But if you have all the requirements in
place (see the section below) and spend some time looking at the right
places, I am sure that you will be able to sell your own ads just as
efficiently as the larger networks.
Flexibility: The third advantage of selling direct
advertising is that you will have much more control over where and how
the ads will be displayed (i.e., you can avoid intrusive advertising).
Google Adsense is nice, but unless you blend it with the content –
annoying some of the readers – you will get terribly low click-through
rates.
Credibility: Finally, having sponsors and direct
advertisers on your blog might help your credibility. Even small and
poorly crafted blogs can stick some Adsense units here and there.
Having established companies that are willing to partnership with your
site, on other hand, can signal that your content has quality and that
the site is somewhat professional.

The Cons

Time consuming: While selling your own ads has
many advantages, it is no panacea. The first drawback of this
monetization option is the time that it will consume. This time will be
spent optimizing your website for the ads, finding potential
advertisers, negotiating with them, and handling the administrative
matters (e.g., making payments, tracking statistics, delivering reports
and so on).
Many requirements: Selling direct adverting is not
as easy as making money from Google Adsense. As you can see from the
section below, you will need to have a popular blog, a professional
looking design, special software and the like.
Unstable: Unless you close deals for very long
periods, which is unlikely, you will find your self looking for new
advertisers or optimizing your website to attract new ones every other
month. The opposite is true for most advertising networks, where you
just need to plug some code and they will do the rest of the work. (If
your site or blog is just a hobby, therefore, direct advertising might
not be the best option)

What You Need to Have in Place

A popular website: Before landing direct
advertising deals you will need to have a good amount of traffic on
your site. There is no “magical” number here, but a good rule of thumb
would be 1000 daily unique visitors. If you are below that mark you
should focus on building traffic instead of looking for advertisers.
Other factors like Google Pagerank, RSS subscribers and Alexa rank
might also help. (Notice that small websites might also be able to sell
direct advertising, but usually the time spent on that will not justify
the results)
A clear focus: You might have the most popular
site on the Internet (well, not as extreme as that, but you get the
point), but unless your site also has a very clear niche and a defined
audience, advertisers will not find it very attractive. This means that
you should avoid rambling about 100 different topics on the website.
Advertisers want to deliver a message to specific people, and the more
specific the better.
A professional looking design: If you are planning
to monetize your website through sponsors, you probably should invest
some money into a professional looking design. Advertisers will be
associating their product or service with your website, and not too
many of them would be willing to get mixed with an ugly, MySpace
looking site.
Give visibility to the sponsors: This point is
connected to the previous one. Not all templates and themes will be
suitable for selling direct advertising. Preferably you want to have an
idea of what kind of advertising you will sell (e.g., 468×60 banners,
125×125 banners, text links) and design your website according to those
objectives. Advertisers want visibility, so reserve a good spot for
them.
Adserver software: In order to serve your ads,
rotate banners and track statistics you will need to install an
Adserver. If you are looking for a simple solution you should try WP-Ads.
This Wordpress plugin will serve ads for specific ad zones that you
create. The only drawback is that it does not count clicks (only
impressions). If you need a more sophisticated solution check OpenAds. You will need to spend some time learning how to use it, but it offers virtually all the features you will ever need.
“Advertise Here” page: It is very important to have an
“Advertise Here” page. On this page you want to give some details about
the website, like audience, traffic and any other factor that might be
of the interest of potential advertisers. Secondly, make sure that you
have some link to that page on the navigation bar and if possible close
to the zone where the ads will be displayed. You can see a perfect
example of such layout on Copyblogger.com.
Standard letter to approach advertisers: While
some advertisers will contact you after reading your “Advertise Here”
page, the rest of them will need to be directly approached by you. In
that case, it is a good idea to create a standard letter to contact the
advertisers. There is no “one size fits all” solution here, but you can
follow some general guidelines:
1. Introduce yourself and quickly explain what the email is about

2. Explain why you decided to contact them and what they have to gain

3. Give details about your site (traffic, subscribers, topic, audience)

4. Give details about the advertising options (location on the site, max number of advertisers, monthly price)

That is it, after that information the advertisers should be able to
decide if they are interested or not. If they reply, then you will fix
the details. Bear in mind that all the info I mentioned should be
contained in 2 or 3 paragraphs. If you send an essay to potential
advertisers they will just skip it altogether.
Accepting payments: You might have
everything in place, but if you are not able to cash payments – or more
importantly, if advertisers are not able to pay easily – you will end
up losing deals. PayPal is the best option here. Notice, however, that
a personal account will not suffice. You will need at least a premier
account to be able to accept credit cards.

Where to Find the Advertisers

Once you have your direct advertising program established, you will
start to receive inquiries from people. On the beginning, however, you
will need to hunt advertisers down. Do not get discouraged if get
turned down initially, provided you have all the aforementioned
requirements, sooner or later you will find someone willing to take a
shot on your site.

People linking to your site or articles: If a company
is willing to link to your articles or to add your website under its
“Links” or “Resources” section, it is also probably willing to discuss
about advertising on your site. Keep track of those incoming links.
People leaving comments/e-mails: The same
principle applies to people leaving comments on your blog or sending
you e-mails. If among them you see an employee or the owner of a
company that could be interested on your website, bingo! Contact him or
her and get the conversation going.
AdWords advertisers: Through out your search for
advertisers you will notice that most of the established companies are
not aware of the benefits of online advertising. If a certain company
is already spending money on Google AdWords, however, it is very likely
that it would also be open to other forms of online advertising. Think
about some keywords that are related to your topic and Google them.
Check the sponsored links that will appear and contact them. (You can
also check the advertisers that appear on the Adsense units of related
websites)
Other advertising networks: While Google AdWords is by
far the largest advertising network on the Internet, there are many
others that could be useful. Check the companies that are spending
money on AdBrite, Text-Link-Ads, BlogAds, SponsoredReviews and so on.
Banner advertisers on similar sites: Check out popular
websites on your niche and see what companies are advertising there.
Provided you offer them an interesting deal (i.e., a reasonable price
for your size), I am pretty sure they will be interested.
Create a “Potential Sponsors” bookmark folder:
This technique produced outstanding results for me. I have a bookmark
folder on my browser called “Potential Sponsors.” Every time I come
across a company or website that could be interested in sponsoring my
website, I bookmark it. Currently I have over 100 bookmarked sites on
that folder, and I have not approached half of them yet.

How Much to Charge

You need to provide value: It is all about value.
A potential sponsor or advertiser will want to see some returns for the
money he will be spending on your site, and this can be seen as
visibility (impressions) and leads (clicks and possible sales). Make
sure, therefore, that your advertising deals will deliver.
The numbers: Remember that there are some pretty
cheap advertising options out there (e.g., Google AdWords), and you
will need to be competitive. Provided you reserved a good spot for the
sponsors (sidebar or header, preferably) you could start charging a
$0,5 CPM (cost per 1000 impressions). If your blog is generating
100,000 monthly page views, therefore, a banner spot on your sidebar
should cost around $50. Start low and build your way upwards. Popular
blogs (e.g., TechCrunch) have a higher CPM, sometimes as high as $10,
but you will need a huge credibility to arrive there.
Cross-check: You can easily check if you are
charging a suitable rate by using Adsense units on the places where you
will sell direct advertising. Analyze how much you would gain with
Adsense, and adjust your rates accordingly. Secondly, you can also
check similar sites that are already selling direct ads.
Be flexible regarding the terms: Flexibility is
key. First of all make advertising agreements on a month-to-month
basis. People don’t like to commit to something they are not completely
sure about. If someone proposes you a longer deal, offer a discount in
exchange.
Offer test periods: Unless you have a very popular
website, you will find potential advertisers reluctant to spend real
money. If you are confident that the deal will create value for both
parties, however, you can use that on your favor. Offer a free test
period whenever needed. Some of the times the advertiser will turn you
down after it, but other times they will confirm the deal. Either way
you have nothing to lose.

Live Search Adds Home Page "Hotspots"

2008-07-30T22:56:00.001-07:00

Microsoft just announced the official U.S. launch of their new home page. The home page was seen in test mode a few months back, but now it is officially live.

The home page contains a background image, which contains "hotspots," used to show off some of the search queries available at Live Search. The home page background images are suppose to change over time and thus generate different query "hotspots," for the end users to play with.

Here is a picture of the new home page, as I see it now:

If you look when the page loads, you will see hotspots fade in and out. If you hover your mouse over the page, you will notice that those hotspots will activate and show you a query. Here is one example of a hotspot on the Live Search home page:

This specific result took me to a Live Video Search query for animals in Bostwana. But other hotspots show off web search, map search and so on.

This looks like another way for Microsoft to generate more search queries, i.e. come play the Live Search home page scavenger hunt, if you will.

A peek into recent AdWords developments

2008-07-22T09:30:00.001-07:00

If you're an avid Inside AdSense reader, you know that we
frequently post about the latest developments in AdSense and new
features you can take advantage of. However, we've heard from some
publishers that they want to know more about what's happening in
AdWords, and what we're doing to bring more relevant, targeted ads to
AdSense sites like yours. With that, we'd like to take a moment to give
you insight into a few recent AdWords developments, and what they mean
for you as an AdSense publisher.

One of the main changes is
the ability for advertisers to be more specific with their ad targeting
through a combination of contextual targeting and placement targeting.
As you may know, contextually targeted ads will appear on your pages if
an advertiser's keywords match your content, while placement-targeted
ads will appear if an advertiser has specifically selected your ad
placement or site. Now, advertisers can target your site or placements,
but can also specify keywords for them so that their ads only appear in
the most relevant pages. These ads will still need to compete with the
available inventory of ads for a particular placement, and so only the
highest-paying, most relevant ads will appear on your pages. At the
same time, you'll still be able to use your Competitive Ad Filter to prevent ads from specific URLs from appearing.

What
does this mean for you, as an AdSense publisher? Your users may see
more relevant ads on your pages, and advertisers who become more
confident that their ads are reaching the right audience may increase
their ad spend -- both of these can result in higher monetization for
you. In addition, while advertisers previously could only change their
bids for all ads running across multiple sites, they can now adjust
their bids for individual sites. This means that advertisers can spend
more of their budgets on the specific AdSense sites which perform well
and generate high-quality leads for the advertiser.

With these
recent improvements, we're looking forward to expanding the number of
advertisers who use the AdSense content network and increasing the
relevance of their ads on your sites. Not only will this increase your
earnings potential through the AdSense program, but it will also
strengthen the ads ecosystem that benefits publishers, advertisers, and
users.

Posted by Arlene Lee - AdSense Publisher Support

Google launches virtual reality site

2008-07-09T07:02:00.001-07:00

Internet search leader debuts 'Lively,' an online world in which Web users can interact with each other using avatars.

Last Updated: July 9, 2008: 9:36 AM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- In the latest expansion beyond its main mission of organizing the world's information, Internet search leader Google Inc. hopes to orchestrate more fantasizing on the Web.

The Mountain View-based company unveiled a free service Tuesday in which three-dimensional software enables people to congregate in electronic rooms and other computer-manufactured versions of real life. The service, called "Lively," represents Google's answer to a 5-year-old site, Second Life, where people deploy animated alter egos known as avatars to navigate through virtual reality.

Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) thinks Lively will encourage even more people to dive into alternate realities because it isn't tethered to one Web site like Second Life, and it doesn't cost anything to use. After installing a small packet of software, a user can enter Lively from other Web sites, like social networking sites and blogs.

The Lively application already works on Facebook, one of the Web's hottest hangouts, and Google is working on a version suitable for an even larger online social network, News Corp.'s (NWS, Fortune 500) MySpace.

"We know people already spend a lot of time online socializing, so we just want to try to make it more enjoyable," said Niniane Wang, a Google engineering manager who oversaw Lively's creation over the past year.

Although Google is best known for the search engine that generates most of its profits, the company has introduced other services that are widely used without making much, if any, money. Google's peripheral products include its 3-D "Earth" software, Picasa for sharing photos and programs for word processing, calendars and spreadsheets.

Google has no plans to sell advertising in Lively, Wang said.

But the service could still indirectly help the company if it encourages people to remain online longer. Google's management reasons that more frequent Web surfing ultimately will lead to more moneymaking clicks on the ads it shows alongside its search results and millions of other Web sites.

Lively's users will be able to sculpt an avatar that can be male, female or even a different species. An avatar can assume a new identity, change clothes or convey emotions with a few clicks of the mouse.

The service also enables users to create different digital dimensions to roam, from a coffeehouse to an exotic island. The settings can be decorated with a wide variety of furniture, including large-screen televisions that can be set up to play different clips from YouTube.com, Google's video-sharing service.

Lively users can then invite their friends and family into their virtual realities, where they can chat, hug, cry, laugh and interact as if they were characters in a video game.

As a precaution, Google is requiring Lively's users to be at least 13 years old - a constraint that hasn't been enough to prevent young children from running into trouble on other social spots on the Web.

Google spent several months testing Lively among a group of Arizona State University students before opening the service to the public through its "Labs" section - a technology sandbox set up for the company's experimental products.

First Published: July 8, 2008: 7:28 PM EDT

[CNN]

AdSense Announce Video Units for Australian and Japanese Publishers

2008-07-06T16:21:00.001-07:00

AdSense Announce Video Units for Australian and Japanese PublishersAdsense 14 commentsIf you live in Australia or Japan you’ll want to check out the AdSense blog today because they’ve just announced that Video Units are now available to you as a publisher. They also mention that you ‘may’ be able to now become a YouTube partner and make money off your own videos (what ‘may’ means I’m about to find out as I’ve just applied).What are video units? “video units are embedded, customizable video players which both enrich sites with relevant video content and enable publishers to earn extra revenue. Relevant and non-intrusive companion and text ads accompany the video content.” Read more about AdSense video units.

How to Optimize Your AdSense Performance [VIDEO]

2008-07-06T16:14:00.001-07:00

Two Australian AdSense team members, Mel Ann and Tim, have put together a good introductory guide to optimizing AdSense.

It’s not advanced but if you’re just starting out with AdSense it’s worth a watch.

Adsense Referrals going Away!

2008-07-02T22:43:00.001-07:00

We're constantly looking for ways to improve AdSense by developing and supporting features which drive the best monetization results for our publishers. Sometimes, this requires retiring existing features so we can focus our efforts on the ones that will be most effective in the long term. For this reason, we will be retiring the AdSense Referrals program during the last week of August. We appreciate your patience during this transition and here are some alternative options to consider:

Google Affiliate Network: As part of the integration of DoubleClick, the DoubleClick Performics Affiliate Network will now operate as the Google Affiliate Network for advertisers targeting users located in the United States. Similar to the AdSense Referrals program, the Google Affiliate Network enables publishers to apply for advertiser programs and get paid based on advertiser-defined actions instead of clicks or impressions. For further details, please visit: http://www.google.com/ads/affiliatenetwork/.
AdSense for content ads: If you have less than three AdSense for content ad units on a page, you may wish to replace the referral ad units with standard AdSense for content ad units.

If you currently use referral ads, either to promote Google products or offerings from AdWords advertisers, AdSense Referrals code will no longer display ads beginning the last week of August. We encourage you to take the following steps before the product is retired:

Remove the referral code from your site(s): Please take a moment to remove all referral code from your sites before the last week of August, so you can continue to effectively monetize your ad space.
Run and save all referrals reports on your desktop: Create and save all reports related to the referrals program on your desktop, so you continue to have access to your valuable campaign information.

Thank you for your support of AdSense Referrals in the past. If you have any additional questions, please visit our Help Center.

Posted by Anuj Srivastava - AdSense Product Marketing

Diagnosing The SEO Health Of Your Website

2008-04-25T03:20:00.001-07:00

Is your website sick?

In many ways, SEO consultants are like doctors, only instead of analyzing your personal health symptoms, we analyze the overall health of your website. It's true we're not working with life or death situations the same way doctors do, but having a website that is not receiving all the targeted search engine traffic it could be, is a sign of a sick website.

When working with a new client our first task is to research their website's symptoms of underperformance. Once we diagnose what the problems are, we can provide a "cure" that will make the website perform better. As with human health, there are varying degrees of website unhealthiness; for people it might range from those that just need to get more exercise to those who have an all out deadly disease. For websites, it can vary from those that can't even get their pages indexed by search engines (and thus are not able to receive any organic search visitors), to those who are receiving lots of organic traffic, but could be obtaining more.

In all cases, a sick website is leaving money on the table.

here are a number of factors that need to be carefully reviewed in order to diagnose exactly where and how you're leaving money on the table. At High Rankings we've developed our own comprehensive technical SEO checklist which came out of many years of auditing 100's of websites.

One of the first diagnostic tests in our checklist is to see how Google views your home page (or any page of your site) by taking a peek at how it looks in Google's "text cache."

Reviewing the x-ray

The text cache is different than the "full cache" that you normally see, as it strips out all graphics and anything else that Google doesn't actually read or index. Google's full cache is similar to a photo of your website, while the text cache is more akin to an x-ray.

You can go directly to the text cache of any page by copying this URL into your browser (substituting your domain for example.com): http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:http://www.example.com/&hl=en&lr=&strip =1

Just as when you see how the inner workings of your body look on an x-ray, what you see in the text cache may surprise you—it's not going to be pretty. But, like an x-ray, reviewing the text cache can often reveal trouble buried deep in your website's programming that you didn't know existed.

Here are some warning signs of poor website health that you may spot when looking at your page through Google's text cache:

Some of the page content (the words) is missing, you see a completely blank page, or there's just some text that says you have to download an application or enable something in order to view the page.
Links that normally exist in your main navigation are nowhere to be seen.
There's a list of unlinked words that are normally contained in a dropdown menu.
You see a bunch of keyword-stuffed paragraphs that you've never seen when viewing the page normally.

Let's look further at each of these warning signs (symptoms), make a diagnosis as to what's happening and then provide a cure.

The Symptom: Missing page content

The diagnosis: Missing page content happens when the text on the page is in a form that Google can't index. If your home page shows up as a completely blank page, chances are that it's actually one giant graphic (or a series of multiple graphics), or the page is completely embedded in Flash. If it's just missing portions of text, the missing text is probably not coded in HTML, but is instead a graphical image of text. Since the search engines have to be able to read and index information from your page to understand how to classify it (and ultimately how to rank it) the words on your page need to be coded as plain-old-fashioned HTML text.

The cure: Convert any words on the page that are embedded in graphics into HTML text. Redesign Flash websites so that only images are coded in Flash, not the important information that you want your users and the search engines to read. There are a few alternative work arounds for these things, but they are more like band-aids than a true cure.

The Symptom: Missing navigational links

The diagnosis: If the links in your main navigation are not showing up, then chances are you're using some sort of search engine "unfriendly" navigation such as one that requires JavaScript or Flash. Or you may be using image navigation that has no alt attribute text (aka "alt tags").

The cure: If your navigation is comprised of unindexable DHTML code or Flash, then recode it using a search engine friendly CSS menu. If that's not possible in the short-term, then place the links contained within your navigation into a <noscript> tag so that the search engines as well as those with JavaScript disabled (or no Flash) will be able to follow the links. If it's simply a case of using image links without alt attributes, then add descriptive alt attribute text that describes the page the link is pointing to. The search engines do not have a problem following image links (with or without alt attribute text) but they will be better able to classify the links when you add descriptive text to them.

The Symptom: List of unlinked words

The diagnosis: When you see this, you are most likely looking at the contents of a drop-down navigational menu. Google indexes the text of those menus, but it doesn't see them as links, and therefore can't get to or index the URLs of the pages contained within them. If the only way to find the resulting pages is through the drop-down, it's unlikely they will get indexed.

The cure: If the pages that are reached through your drop-down menu are ones that you want indexed by Google, then either change your drop-down into a more search engine friendly navigation system, or add some alternative navigation that contains links to the URLs in your drop-down. It's important to note that while you could put these types of links into a site map to help them get indexed, this is also a bit of a bandaid approach as they won't be given very much weight in the eyes of the search engines if the site map is the only place from which they are linked.

The Symptom: Keyword stuffed paragraphs that aren't normally visible

The diagnosis: Somebody who has control of your site has been messing with it to try to trick the search engines! Amazingly enough, people (and some dumb SEO companies) still use hidden text as an SEO technique. It's pretty silly, and in all likelihood if the page is ranking well, it's probably doing so despite the hidden text, not because of it. Think of this like smoking cigarettes; it might not hurt you in the short term, but it's definitely not good for your long-term health. Competitors have been known to squeal to Google about hidden text, and a quick review by a search engineer could kill the website for good.

The cure: Find the offending hidden code in the website and remove it as soon as possible. If someone you hired to optimize your site recommended this tactic, you may want to find a new SEO company immediately!

Using Google's text cache is just one of the tools we use to diagnose the overall health of your website. There are many additional potential problem areas that you'll need to look into as well, which I'll write about in future articles.

[Source: Searchengineland]

New Google CIO: Morgan Stanley's Benjamin Fried

2008-04-25T03:19:00.001-07:00

News.com reports that Benjamin Fried, a Morgan Stanley managing director, has been pegged to fill the chief information officer spot that opened up when Douglas Merrill left earlier this month. Google's confirmed the move.

That's fast work. The company is still seeking a new chief financial officer after George Reyes announced he was leaving last August. Over half a year later, Reyes remains on while the search for a replacement continues.

See Megachart & Analysis: Google Management Changes, 2000-2008 for a look at Google top management changes over the years.

Yahoo Adds Click Filter Report

2008-04-23T10:27:00.001-07:00

Yahoo announced a new reporting feature in the search marketing portal that enables advertisers to see which clicks Yahoo has deemed to be invalid. The report is named the "Click Filter Report" and is available by clicking the “Reports” tab, then selecting “Click Filter” under the “Traffic Quality Reports” section in the Reports Navigator on the left side of the screen.

In this report, you can see exactly which clicks Yahoo is classifying as clicks that were not from a valid source. These clicks you won't be billed for, according to Yahoo. Yahoo said they created the report for three reasons:

We want to give you as much transparency as we can
We want to add to the tools at your disposal for monitoring your own traffic.
We believe our Click Protection System is one of the best in the industry, and we want you to see what it does for your account.

Search Illustrated: International SEO Tips

2008-04-22T19:52:00.001-07:00

Search engine optimization can extend far past domestic versions of the major search engines. Some globally-focused companies want increased visibility in country-specific search engines outside of the U.S. market. This week's infographic illustrates some tips and best practices associated with successful international optimization.

[Searchengineland.com]

Google’s Special China Page and Its Helper Cartoon

2008-04-21T02:49:00.001-07:00

Maybe Google’s “Cliply” was only an easter egg (see previous post), but Google does have a help avatar on a homepage variant of theirs in China. The cartoon figure is called 小谷, which can be losely translated to “small valley” or “little Goo” (as “xiǎo gǔ” reuses a part of Google’s Chinese name). Little Goo gives tips on how to use Google search, e.g. how to bring up weather or calculator onebox results. You can click the [x] in the thought bubble to make Goo go away... but the helper returns next time you load the page. Perhaps Lil’ Goo and Clippy are distant cousins or something.

What’s this special Chinese homepage anyway? We mentioned it before, but it’s not Google’s main page when accessing google.cn in China (that honor goes to another page). Rather, I have reason to believe the page is set to be the default homepage in some internet cafes in China as part of a certain deal Google struck. One Chinese blogger who likes to remain anonymous tells me Google might not have paid enough though, as sometimes games sites like ztgame.com are default in net bars. Internet cafe operators only have low basic salary but have a share in the profits, the source says, indicating that while Google.cn is a student, Ztgame is godfather.

Another Google Video Redesign

2008-04-21T02:48:00.001-07:00

Google Video redesigned their US homepage again; above, you can see the past designs of Google Video leading to the current one*. The service started out as a video-free search service for stills and captions from TV, then became a video storage & sales site, and since last year, is a meta video search engine. The latest design recommends a couple of “hot videos,” which play in a left-side player if you click on them. “The hot video list is compiled by looking at a variety of signals including videos that most shared, viewed and blogged about,” Google says. Most of the video recommendations at the moment are from Google-owned YouTube.

Below the hot videos, another section lists videos “Featured on AOL” probably put up due to the alliance between Google and AOL; this is typical of how portal-style sites usually emphasize what their partners have to offer as opposed to what the user may really look for.

The Google Video player page has also been reorganized. It looks a bit more organized and application-like now, letting you expand and collapse its elements, and using tabs or arrow-button paging to organize comments and other features.

When you play videos from other sites, Google continues to wrap them in a frame, but Google’s part of the frame is now positioned to the left instead of the top, perhaps to not push down videos too much on the page:

Google’s frame can be closed with an X to its top right, but that won’t remove the frameset itself, so the video URL (e.g. when shared with friends) will still point to Google; you can click “original context” at the bottom of Google’s frame though to remove their frameset completely**.

I’m curious how this frame benefits Google users in the first place though. At Google images, where a similar frame is used, it serves a purpose because the target image is often buried deep down in the page, making it harder to find (clicking on the thumbnail at the top will lead directly to the image then). Usually no such obstacle is found on video result pages, though, where the video is visible immediately – perhaps making the first beneficiary of that Google frame Google Inc itself, as it makes users stay longer on their site. What’s more, Google’s “share” and “related videos” features offered in their frame are usually redundant as the target video site already offers these. (In 2004, Google co-founder Larry Page told Playboy, “We want you to come to Google and quickly find what you want. Then we’re happy to send you to the other sites. In fact, that’s the point. The portal strategy tries to own all of the information.” The 4 years that passed since then are a long time on the web.)

Google Video’s search result pages changed in this redesign, too. By default you will see a thumbnail to the left and snippet and link too the right, ordered in a list view. But now you can toggle to a grid view as well as a TV view on top. The TV view splits the page into a list to the left and a player widget to the middle right. Clicking on a result in the TV view will dynamically embed the other video sharing site’s video. While this also keeps users longer at Google Video than at other sites, this time the feature makes sense for users, as no features (like related videos, or sharing) are mirrored on the page. Video sharing sites will likely continue to add more commercials of their own right into the embedded films to make money, independent of which site the user is on. However, the end result of the TV view is not quite as fluent as zapping through TV channels at all time because partly, the external site (like tudou.com) will be very slow to load.

[Thanks Jilm!]

*Not all homepage design iterations are included in that image.

**Note this frameset is also not included when you click on video search results from Google’s main web search engine, which continues to be a video search engine as well as part of Google’s “universal search” approach. Universal search aims to let people search through all kinds of content without having to visit the specialized search homepage.

Google Gets Whois Answers In Search Results

2008-04-21T02:46:00.001-07:00

Looks like Google's gained a new direct answer service, whois information for domains. Enter a query like whois searchengineland.com, and you'll be told when the domain was registered and expires, along with a link to more information from the Domain Tools site. Here's a screenshot:

Google's not done a formal announcement, but Matt Cutts just noted it on his blog here.

As Google Operating System notes, back in 2004 Google rolled out a somewhat similar service that was quickly ended after Network Solutions blocked Google's requests.

Postscript: Note, some people aren't seeing this feature. It might still be buggy, while there also seems to be some availability issues, too.

"Browser Search Engine" ChunkIt Launches

2008-04-21T02:44:00.001-07:00

On Friday ChunkIt launched in a private beta. ChunkIt is a search download that sits on top of existing results and enables users to preview them before clicking. Relevant "chunks" of content are called out in a separate pane that splits the screen between the engine and the ChunkIt page.

At this stage it sounds a lot like other search plug-ins, toolbars, or search "side bars" that have come before. However, CEO Carlton Baab objects to the concept that this is simply another plug-in or search toolbar. He characterizes it instead as a "search engine for the browser."

In the past, there have been numerous efforts to help users cull through search results via plug-ins, toolbars, or search add-ons. Recent entries include Mahalo Follow and Surf Canyon, a plug-in that "recommends" related search results. Then there are numerous Firefox extensions that augment or annotate search results. There have also been many third-party efforts to enable people to "preview" results prior to clicking (e.g., Snap ). And there's an emerging category of so-called "visual search engines," which push that concept further.

Baab says, by contrast, that ChunkIt is a powerful search engine could stand on its own. But the company didn't want to ask people, for obvious reasons, to try yet another new engine. So it adopted the current download/overlay strategy, which may change over time according to Baab.

An interesting search plug-in in the local segment, Palore changed its model because it found getting people to download the application very challenging. The company is now aggregating and syndicating local data and reselling it to consumer destinations instead. Analytics firm Compete was at one time pushing a toolbar, which offers overlay information on search results about a range of topics. While the toolbar still exists, the company has stopped directly promoting it on its home page.

These examples suggest the challenge that ChunkIt faces to gain awareness ad adoption. The tool is in private beta so we haven't yet had a chance to assess its value.

Google Offers Best Practices For Moving A Site

2008-04-17T08:10:00.001-07:00

Google's Webmaster Central blog wrote a best practices for moving your site to a new domain. I am happy with Google's write up and it is a great first step, but I am a strong advocate of a Google Certified Domain Change process within Webmaster Tools.

In any event, here is a summary of what Google recommends:

Test moving part of your site to the new domain first.
Use 301 redirects to notify Google of the change.
Redirect your pages to the most relevant new page, when possible.
If you are rebranding your site also, maybe first move the original site and then do a redesign.
Make sure your internal links are pointing to the new domain.
Try to encourage external links to change to the new domain.
Hold on to old domain for 180 days
Register and verify the new site with Webmaster Tools and then submit a sitemap.
Review crawl errors within Webmaster Tools on both the new and old domain.

I have some additional resources at the Search Engine Roundtable on moving domains.

Google Australia's Director Has Six Birthdays?

2008-04-14T06:46:00.001-07:00

Google execs out of sight from The Australian reports that Google Australia's Director, Mark Tucker, has six official birthdays.

According the report, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has six different recorded birthdays for Mr. Tucker. The birthdays include January 21, 1953, January 13, 1953, January 25, 1953, January 12, 1953, January 12, 1963 and March 12, 1953. Tucker said the six different birthdays are "typographical errors" and will be corrected. But like TechCrunch, it just seems weird to me to have six typos, maybe two, maybe three, but six?

Secrets Of Paid Search Success From 1930s Direct Mail Wizards

2008-04-14T06:45:00.001-07:00

If you buy search ads to drive sales, you are a direct response advertiser. Welcome, today's short column is for you.

If you buy search to increase awareness of your brand, you're a brand advertiser. Sorry, but this column is for the direct response gang, us red-headed step-kids of the advertising world. Save us a canapé from the awards banquet; we'll be back at the office with our spreadsheets.

Just us direct response folks? OK, here's today's suggestion: we search marketers can learn a lot from the direct mail wizards.

Putting it more crudely: if Claude Hopkins was alive, his Google campaigns would kick ass.

Claude Hopkins. Albert Lasker. John Caples. David Ogilvy. Leo Burnett. Maxwell Sackheim.

If you don't know these names, you should.

They're the guys who invented direct response. It was called "direct mail" back then, but the rules are the same. Their ideas for getting an envelope opened, an ad read, and a check written are still effective today for getting a link clicked, an Add To Cart button pushed, and a VISA number typed in.

Long before the Digg crowd discovered the importance of headlines for linkbaiting, Claude Hopkins had that idea covered. Check out Hopkins on headlines -- that was published in 1923!

The early mail guys knew what mattered: tracking your results, knowing your profitability metrics, marketing to strong lists, testing different versions, writing compelling headlines, crafting copy which sells.

To learn more, head to the library or Amazon. These dusty tomes are pure web marketing rocket fuel:

Scientific Advertising, Claude Hopkins, 1923 (free online)
Tested Advertising Methods, John Caples, 1932
Ogilvy on Advertising, David Ogilvy, 1985

Another classic direct mail idea relevant to search: the List-Offer-Package Rule.

The List-Offer-Package Rule states that when you are trying to sell something remotely, the list (who you are communicating with) is more important than the offer (the details of what you are selling, the item, the pricing, the guarantee); and the list and the offer are more important than the package (how it looks, the copy, the artwork, color and typography).

Years ago a consultant gave me this example.

"Say you are selling sets of collectible china plates with the state birds on them. If you had a list of people who recently bought collectible plates, that would be a good start."

"Now if you had a list of people who had recently bought collectible plates with animals on them via the mail or web, that would be even better."

"If you had that targeted list, you could practically send them a handwritten scribbled postcard saying 'Hi I have some plates that would interest you' and you'd pull a 5% response rate."

"Suppose you had a totally killer direct mail piece for these plates, with a powerful long letter written by an top DM copywriter, beautiful pictures and optimized response card, buck slip, the whole shebang tested and proven in the mail with solid split tests."

"Say you mailed this killer package to a generic list, perhaps, women aged 50+. You’d be lucky to see 0.5% response rate."

"That's the critical idea of the List-Offer-Package Rule: even a plain note to a highly targeted list will outpull the perfect package sent to an untargeted list by 10 to 1."

I personally learned the List-Offer-Package Rule a decade ago, and it has held true in everything I've observed since.

How does List-Offer-Package apply to search?

List trumps everything. That means getting terms, bids, and match types right matters far far far more than perfect ad copy.
Offer trumps copy. That means great site design, usability testing, and MVT improvements won't help all that much if you're out of competitive position on price and shipping.
Response lists trump demographic lists. Microsoff and Google are excitedly promoting demographic bidding. Us red-haired step-kids just yawn and turn back to our spreadsheets. As RKG client insightfully commented regarding Microsoft's demographic data: "I don't care who they are, just so long as they want to buy our stuff." If you wanted to see the direct response crew sit up and take notice, offer us the option to bid based on a recent online purchase flag. (More on this: PurchaseMatch: How GOOG Could Hit $750" on rkgblog.)

Goto.com launched in February 1998. Google opened its doors in September 2008. The modern search industry is just 10 years old. Yet, many important ideas for making ads relevant and effective predate '98 by over 50 years.

To get a leg up on your competition in 2008, try spending an afternoon with your nose buried a classic direct mail book from the 1930s.

Google And Salesforce.com Integrate Apps To Penetrate Enterprise, Duel Microsoft

2008-04-14T06:44:00.001-07:00

The final quote in Miguel Helft's NY Times article, on the deepening alliance between Google and CRM software provider Salesforce.com, says it all, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend, so that makes Google my best friend." It's attributed to Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com. Basically, in a deal announced this morning, Salesforce is integrating Google Apps into its platform so that enterprise users can access the latter directly.

Here's how the press materials distributed by Google describe the deal:

[Google and Salesforce.com are making] it easy for companies of all sizes to run their business in the cloud with Salesforce for Google Apps. The combination of the Google Apps suite of productivity applications and the Salesforce suite of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications enables businesses to effectively communicate and collaborate without any hardware or software to download, install or maintain. Salesforce for Google Apps also leverages the Force.com Platform and Google's open APIs, opening up even more development opportunities for developers and partners. . .

--Salesforce and Gmail(TM) – Businesses can now easily send, receive and store email communication, keeping a complete record of customer interactions for better sales execution and improved customer satisfaction.
--Salesforce and Google Docs(TM) – Create, manage, and share online Google Documents, Google Spreadsheets, and Google Presentations within your sales organization, marketing group, or support team for instant collaboration.
--Salesforce and Google Talk(TM) – Instantly communicate with colleagues or customers from Salesforce and optionally attach Google Talk conversations to customer or prospect records stored in Salesforce.
--Salesforce and Google Calendar(TM) – Expose sales tasks and marketing campaigns from Salesforce on Google Calendar. Built by Appirio, this application is one example of a new category of partner extensions to Salesforce for Google Apps.

The companies have been working together in various ways since last year and this is an evolution of that relationship. For example, Salesforce users have been able to buy AdWords through the platform since early 2007. But for the fact that Salesforce is public ($7.2 billion market cap), it would make sense for Google to buy the company given its current trajectory.

One thing that's interesting here is the rhetoric. Google has always been cautious to say that it's not trying to replace MS Office or compete directly with Microsoft. That position, however, has been less credible over time as Apps expands and rolls out new capabilities that directly address Office. But Salesforce CEO Benioff isn't mincing words. He sees the inclusion of Apps into the Salesforce platform as making his company stronger against its CRM rival. Benioff tells TechCrunch:

You’ve seen what we have been doing is slowly integrating all of our services with theirs. Certainly the enemy of my enemy is my friend, which makes Google my best friend. I have spoken with a lot of customers who want to get off of Microsoft Word.

There's more discussion on Techmeme.

Google Now Fills Out Forms & Crawls Results

2008-04-12T13:30:00.001-07:00

One of the biggest search challenges has long been that the major search engines like Google cannot crawl material that can only be retrieved through the use of forms. Now Google is filling out those form to obtain the information previously hidden, the company has announced.

Google says that for the past few months, it has been filling in forms on a "small number" of "high-quality" web sites to get back information. What words has it been entering into those forms? Words automatically selected that occur on the site, with check boxes and drop-down menus also being selected:

In the past few months we have been exploring some HTML forms to try to discover new web pages and URLs that we otherwise couldn't find and index for users who search on Google. Specifically, when we encounter a <FORM> element on a high-quality site, we might choose to do a small number of queries using the form. For text boxes, our computers automatically choose words from the site that has the form; for select menus, check boxes, and radio buttons on the form, we choose from among the values of the HTML.

Results returned are then crawled. Ironically, it was just over a year ago that Google warned against getting search results like these indexed. Now it's actually generating and crawling those results itself.

Don't want Google doing this to your site? Google says that if your form is blocked through robots.txt or meta robots instructions, those forms won't be accessed. In addition, some other forms won't be touched if they fit certain technical criteria:

We only retrieve GET forms and avoid forms that require any kind of user information. For example, we omit any forms that have a password input or that use terms commonly associated with personal information such as logins, userids, contacts, etc.

The move is potentially good for searchers, in that it will open up material often referred to being part of the "deep web" or "invisible web" as it was hidden behind forms. Search Engine Land executive editor Chris Sherman actually co-authored a book on the topic. He and fellow author Gary Price didn't coin the term invisible web but they certainly help popularize it.

It should be noted that Google's not the first to do something like this. Companies like Quigo, BrightPlanet and WhizBang Labs were doing this type of work years ago. But it never translated over to the major search engines. Now chapter two of surfacing deep web material is opening, this time with a major search player -- in that, Google is being a pioneer.

Zune Guy's name change endeavor is back on

2008-04-10T11:00:00.001-07:00

We can't say we'd follow in this guy's footsteps for any amount of money, but boy, does it make for fantastic drama. Shortly after the famed Zune Guy (you know, that cat with a trio of Zune-inspired tattoos?) decided to legally change his name to "Microsoft Zune," the plan was put on hiatus after hearing that it cost a whopping $500 to get a name swap. After getting curious, investigating and discovering that he only needed $150 to have it done, he put the mission squarely back on the front burner. Unfortunately, there still stands a chance of the aforesaid name being denied, so he's posted up a poll in order to let the general public give him a list of backups. Personally, we're feelin' McZunin.

Verizon sues Time Warner Cable over some dumb ads

2008-04-10T10:53:00.001-07:00

Hey, we hate lawsuits just as much as the next guy, but we're finding it hard to fault Verizon for this one. Verizon and Time Warner Cable arrived in court on Wednesday to settle a tiff over some ads that Verizon claims offer up misleading info about Verizon's FiOS service. Listed among the complaints include supposed false implications by TWC that FiOS requires a satellite dish, doesn't include phone, broadband and video, and that Time Warner's network is better. Time Warner Cable is naturally calling the lawsuit "without merit." Verizon wants TWC to stop running the ads and issue a retraction, as well as compensate them for lost revenue. We're not positive which ad Verizon is referring to, but if it's anything like the ad after the break -- which has some downright false implications about Time Warner Cable using fiber optics "for over a decade" -- then Verizon very well might have something here. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

Confirmed: Yahoo To Test Google AdSense For Search Ads

2008-04-10T09:39:00.001-07:00

Yahoo has confirmed a Wall Street Journal report that it will be testing Google's paid search ads alongside its own for the next two weeks and involving no more than 3 percent of Yahoo's search pages in the United States. From the Yahoo statement

Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company, announced today that it will begin a limited test of Google Inc.'s AdSense for Search service, which will deliver relevant Google ads alongside Yahoo!'s own search results. The test will apply only to traffic from yahoo.com in the U.S. and will not include Yahoo!'s extended network of affiliate or premium publisher partners. The test is expected to last up to two weeks and will be limited to no more than 3% of Yahoo! search queries.

As previously announced, Yahoo!'s board of directors is exploring strategic alternatives to maximize stockholder value, including exploration of potential commercial business arrangements. The Company noted that the testing does not necessarily mean that Yahoo! will join the AdSense for Search program or that any further commercial relationship with Google will result. The Company further stated that it would not comment on the nature or timing of any potential relationship.

"AdSense For Search," by the way, is the official name for Google's paid search ads that appear on other search sites (AdSense For Content is the name of the contextual product; AdWords is the name of the program advertisers use to buy any type of AdSense placement. The names are all confusing, but don't blame us).

Why would Yahoo do this? Reportedly, Google's ad generate more revenue and Yahoo may have areas where they have limited search ad inventory for specific queries. This may lead to a "broader search ad outsourcing arrangement" between Google and Yahoo.

Moreover, if it does generate more revenue for Yahoo, it could potentially be another weapon to keep Yahoo out of the hands of Microsoft. Can Google Save Yahoo By Taking Over Search? from Danny in February looks further at the idea of how a Google deal might help Yahoo.

Microsoft has responded by suggesting any deal might come under regulatory challenge. However, this overlooks the fact that in the past, partnerships were used by Overture (now Yahoo) to gain huge paid search marketshare without opposition.

Microsoft: Forget It On Paid Search Partnership, Google & Yahoo from Danny today has more about the Microsoft response and any regulatory issues that might come up.

For further discussion, see related articles at Techmeme.

"Previous Query" Refinement Coming To Hit Google Results

2008-04-10T09:37:00.001-07:00

Yesterday (technically still today my time), I did a keynote interview with Google vice president of search products & user experience Marissa Mayer during our SMX Sydney show. We covered a wide range of topics, including how "Previous Query" refinement will soon come to natural listings on Google, plus how Australia is to get StreetView mapping, Google testing how well Yahoo monetizes, how Orkut might have to be replaced in the US and other topics.

Live blogging isn't my thing, and live blogging when you're asking the questions on stage certainly isn't either. Heck, it's tough enough to jot down notes of what was said. So my recap below will be without a lot of direct quotes, but I wanted to highlight points I found interesting.

Previous Query

Last year, we covered (and here) how Google was changing the ads it displayed based on the previous query someone performed. For example, search for [spain] then do a new search for [travel], and you may notice how the ads will be targeted around Spanish travel (see also Google's help page on this).

Google's never given this feature a formal name, but Marissa said internally the company calls it "Previous Query," the first time to my knowledge that we've had some type of formal name put to it. Learn the name well, because Previous Query refinement is now coming to unpaid or "organic" search results, she said.

For example, if someone were to search for [spain] and then [travel] after that, BOTH the ads and the organic results will be altered to take the previous query into account. To some degree, it will be as if the second query was for [spain travel].

This is a big deal. Big deal. It means that the results for many "single word" queries, which can be hard for sites to rank for when billions of listings come back, will become queries involving two or more words -- and much more specific ones.

When's it happening? "Soon." Indeed, it's already been happening for several weeks for some people randomly selected. Who will get it, when live? Everyone that accepts a cookie. IE, it's not personalized search thing that only happens if you're logged in.

How could a user opt-out. Heh. I didn't get to asking that, sorry. But I imagine any search where the + symbol is used before a word or words will override Previous Query.

StreetView Australia

Australia is to get StreetView mapping hopefully by the middle of this year, Marissa said. Cars have already been driving the roads in Australia for some time in preparation for it. See also this news article which picks up on privacy issues.

Google Testing Yahoo

I asked about the news that Yahoo would carry Google's search ads, to the degree Marissa could comment about it. She remarked that it was a way for Google to test how well Yahoo monetizes. I thought this turn of phrase was important to note -- that it's not a Yahoo experiment but a Google one. As I remarked in the story about Yahoo and AOL possibly merging, which we covered yesterday:

In my talk today at SMX Sydney with Google vice president Marissa Mayer, she noted that the Yahoo deal that it was a way for Google to measure Yahoo’s traffic and how well it monetizes. This is important. This is not just a Yahoo test – it’s a test for Google. And from that test, Google will better understand how much it could make in a crucial revenue guarantee to a combined Yahoo-AOL, which might help the deal move along and keep Yahoo out of Microsoft’s hands.

Other Points

It being so late here in Australia (coming up on midnight) and me being both jet lagged and short of sleeping, I'll come back to some of other points in more detail later. But here are some fast hits:

Not A Portal: The goal remains for Google to still get users off the site, rather than to try and host content that some feel is a way for Google to either be a media company or capture the "second click." But in some cases, Google hosts content because it feels otherwise, the content wouldn't exist -- or not as much would be out there. YouTube and Google Book Search were examples she gave.
iPhone & Mobile: The iPhone in particular continues to show growth to mobile searches. Could Google tell how many use the iPhone to reach Google through the 2G cell network versus hotspots/wifi. Yes, and the traffic is roughly 50/50, off the top of her head.
Social Search: Tapping into your friends to refine search results is an interesting idea but one that remains fraught with problems, as you probably don't want to actually share some search results with friends. There are other issues, and she expects at the moment that this may be a minor signal used to influence results and more likely to suggest potential sites to visit.
Orkut: She reiterated that the Orkut social networking site that Google runs remains strong worldwide. But she said that it might be that for the US and other key markets where it does not lead, the company might need to rebrand or build entirely new social networking services.

Postscript Barry: Neerav Bhatt summarized his notes on the SMX Sydney conference as well.