Your Search Advisor, LLC » Blog

Google Dashboard: What They Know About You

2009-11-05T14:50:53Z

Want access to all of your Google products, stored info and privacy settings in one place? The new Google Dashboard announced today gives users two things lacking in most online interactions these days: visibility and control.

This video explains more:

As web users and consumers, we should be pushing all web services to provide this level of visibility and control. As web marketers, we should promote transparency, educate consumers and web users about their options, and promote privacy and security best practices. The Google Dashboard seems like a win/win for Google and its billions of users.

But Wait

I’m sure I’m not the only person that saw the entire list of Google services that I subscribe to (plus the 23 products that are not yet available in the Dashboard) and thought, “Holy crap this company knows a lot about me.”

With this amount of detail about our personal lives, let’s hope G lives up to it’s official motto of “Don’t be evil“.

Bing and Yahoo, Your Turn

Where’s my dashboard? The ball is in your court.

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My Favorite Questions for New Clients

2009-11-04T00:57:51Z

Any questions?

I can’t tell you how many prospective clients come to me saying “We need SEO!” without really understanding WHY they need it (or if they need it at all). I usually start the conversation with a list of questions that hardly even mention search engines at all.

When possible, I prefer to have this conversation in person rather than over email. It allows me to probe deeper if they mention anything that raises more questions or red flags. I included my internal though process and rationale below each question.

What questions do you ask your clients? If you are responsible for marketing your company, what questions do you wish your marketing firms or consultants would ask you?

What are your business and marketing objectives? How do you measure them?

Depending on your objectives, specific SEM tactics can be tailored to help support your marketing and advertising initiatives such as lead generation or awareness building. Just as importantly, how are you measuring the success or failure of your marketing and business strategies?

Who are your target audience(s)?

Different segments of the population use the internet differently and have different search habits. Additionally, different “calls to action” should be considered for different audiences.

What other marketing channels are you using or thinking about using?

Search Engine Marketing works best when integrated with other marketing channels to capture the awareness and intent generated in other media.

What is your timeline? Do you need traffic immediately?

Unless your website already ranks at the top of a search results page, Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is the only sure way to drive traffic to your website from a search engine reliably and quickly. PPC gives you much more control over who sees your ads and where they land on your site. As the name implies, you are paying for every click and it may not scale as well over time.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a more gradual strategy that will take a little longer to kick in, but the incremental traffic from higher rankings does not cost anything on a per-click basis. If you are looking for long-term efficiency and scalability, SEO is probably for you.

Many times, PPC spending can be implemented first to bring traffic to the site while the SEO tactics are underway.

Who manages your website and is responsible for making changes?

To get the best results, it may be necessary to modify the structure or content of your website.

If you were searching for your company, which keywords would you use?

There is often a discrepancy between what a company says about itself and the keywords that consumers actually type into search engines. A great example is “low cost airfare” versus “cheap tickets”.

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FORTUNE on Google/Gov’t “Love Story”

2009-10-27T12:48:30Z

I’m glad I’m not the only one that has some questions about the growing relationship between Google and the government. This week’s FORTUNE magazine’s cover story is titled “Obama & Google (a love story)“.

Again, I’m not saying it’s necessarily a bad thing to have one of the world’s smartest technology companies helping the government (federal, state, and local) get up to speed on all things digital, but it certainly does raise some questions. If nothing else, the developing relationship requires a little extra oversight.

You know, just in case the machines become sentient and start to turn on us

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Pentagigatweet?

2009-10-20T19:31:46Z

According to an article in the UK’s Telegraph, Twitter recorded it’s 5 billionth “tweet” yesterday. Appropriately, the full text was “Oh lord.”

'nuff said?

Other interesting tidbits:

Twitter logs about 300 tweets per second.
The 5 billionth tweet is affectionately known as the “pentagigatweet”.
As of this past April, there had only been 1.6 billion tweets, meaning 3.4 billion have been sent in the past 6 months alone.
Since posting the “pentagigatweet”, he has said that he intends to delete it, creating a zombie version called the “necropentagigatweet”.
My Top 5 Twitter Pet Peeves from February ‘09 are still true.
As I predicted in March of ‘08, Twitter is still not a marketing revolution except for a clever few that have adapted to the new communications platform.

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Web Design Sketchbook Makes Life Easier

2009-10-20T13:59:38Z

Web Design Sketchbook

Attention web professionals: do yourself a favor and check out the Web Design Sketchbook. It’s a spiral-bound time saver that helps web designers and developers capture thoughts and concepts on paper.

From the site:

This 52 page book features pages of varying canvas sizes complete with grids and browser chrome and areas for taking notes, adding descriptions and rating your concepts. Save time and produce better creative work for less than the cost of your monthly coffee bill.

It’s a handy tool to keep around. Ross Johnson created a few prototypes to use in his web design company and decided to refine the concept and make it available to others.

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Measuring Social Media LA2M Presentation

2009-10-14T01:15:34Z

Measuring Social Media

If you are into Social Media and want to learn how to measure your social marketing efforts, I highly recommend you attend Dave Linabury’s “Measuring the Success of Online Communities” presentation at LA2M on Wednesday, November 4th.

Dave is a nationally recognized expert on creating, building, nurturing, and activating social networks. I had the privilege of working with him on a few projects at Campbell-Ewald Advertising and I can honestly say he’s lapping the field in this area.

You may recognize him from a previous post a few weeks ago called “Why Social Media Users Revolt“.

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NYT: Two Thirds Oppose Online Tracking

2009-09-30T16:15:38Z

According to the New York Times, two thirds of Americans object to online tracking by marketers seeking to provide customized discounts, news, and promotions.

A recent article highlights the findings of a survey by the University of Pennsylvania and Cal Berkeley that phoned consumers to ask their opinions.

Here’s a sample question:

“Please tell me whether or not you want the Web sites you visit to give you discounts that are tailored to your interests.”

I’m a marketer by trade but a consumer at heart, so I can see both sides of the coin. On one hand, it’s kind of creepy knowing the full range of marketers’ capabilities when it comes to online tracking. Putting on my consumer hat for a moment, I enjoy the benefits of special discounts and offers that are designed for me and my interests, not for the masses.

Do as I do, not as I say

Putting my marketer hat back on, I know that what consumers say in a survey is usually very different than what they actually do. The two thirds of web users that oppose personal tracking probably really enjoy receiving and redeeming specialized offers even if they aren’t aware of how they are generated.

Therein lies the rub. Customer tracking is not evil and does not mean that your data will be used against you. However, marketers should provide more “opt out” capabilities for web users that don’t like to be tracked online and make clear the pros and cons of sharing information.

It’s not going away, so we have to find a way to make it mutually beneficial for both parties.

Photo by rpongsaj on Flickr. Thanks!

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