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This is an interesting panel discussion about some fairly uncommon questions about search engine optimization. I think what interested me most about the article was the advanced questions people asked more than the actual answers. People are getting pretty savvy as web marketing consumers.
MarketerToday :: Marketing Strategy: Search Engine Marketing Q&A with Mike Grehan, Heather Lloyd-Martin, Andy Beal and Ben Wills

This is an interesting panel discussion about some fairly uncommon questions about search engine optimization. I think what interested me most about the article was the advanced questions people asked more than the actual answers. People are getting pretty savvy as web marketing consumers.
MarketerToday :: Marketing Strategy: Search Engine Marketing Q&A with Mike Grehan, Heather Lloyd-Martin, Andy Beal and Ben Wills

It looks like the article we did with the Akron Beacon Journal about blogging is now being published throughout many of the Knight Ridder newspapers.
Here’s Our Article in the Hawaii News
The title, “Who let the blogs out?” is maybe the goofiest title I could think of. It’s catchy though.
Here are the sites Google has indexed of the article so far:
Google Search

How exciting!

This is a much needed group that will hopefully spread the word to more companies about the necessity of analytics.

InformationWeek > Vendor Group Founds Web Analytics Trade Association > Vendor Group Founds Web Analytics Trade Association > February 22, 2005

OK. I was just wondering about this and low and behold here it is. I really wanted to know exactly what a conversion cost across different media.

According to Piper Jaffray, the cost to acquire a customer is about $8.50 for search, $20 for Yellow Pages, $50 for online display ads, $60 for e-mail and $70 for direct mail. Data for television was not included.

In other interesting news found in this article:

Web search advertising revenue $8 billion in 2005

Global search advertising revenue, which was $369 million in 2001, is expected to hit $7.9 billion this year, according to research from Piper Jaffray & Co.

WebTrends data suggesting that 60 percent of marketers do not measure sales, leads or key actions resulting from campaigns.
[This is a dangerous number because that means you are competing with people who don't know what things are truly costing them. You need to be extra analytical when going head to head with this guy.]

Based on Universal McCann’s 2005 advertising outlook, the Big Four U.S. television networks will attract nearly two times Piper Jaffray’s global search spending estimate. U.S. direct mail spending is expected to hit $57.2 billion this year.
[even though it costs them more per lead]

Yahoo! News - Gold Mine Found in Web Searches

TNS/CMR: Ad Spending Grew 9.8% in’04
I’m always curious to know where people are spending their money. This article covers that and also points out the change from ‘03 to ‘04.

Did you know that local newspaper advertisement ruled the ad buying roost? Amazing!

I’ve also taken the liberty of putting their numbers in a handy chart for you here:

Handy or creepy. You be the judge…

“My Search History lets you easily view and manage your search history from any computer. This feature of Google web search enables you to find information you thought you lost. And over time, you’ll see an increasing number of relevance indicators in your search results that help you find the information you want.”

Google - My Search History

As we discussed here:
SageRock Web Marketing Weblog: Study: Consumers Delete Cookies at Surprising Rate
We weren’t sure that users were truly deleting cookies at the rate at which was reported.

Well, that study has been challenged here:
Cookie Death Small Potatos, More Product of Spyware Measures ? MarketingVOX

This is being discussed here:

Cookie Deletion Study Exaggerated -> High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum

Sorry for the quick rap up. But I wanted to tie those articles together for you. I have to run!

“Link Popularity Building Best Practice: Vary Your Anchor Text ”

Increasingly, link building for a site needs to be handled with greater levels of finesse. It used to be (as in 6 months ago) that you would just buy hundreds of links with the same title and description which honed in on your main targeted key phrase. That technique is easily distinguished by the engines and consequently is getting people excluded from the indexes for those very phrases.

So the moral of the story is: Mix it up. Use multiple variations of your title and description for link building. Anything that is replicated over and over again is going to probably do you more harm than good.

LSI and Link Popularity

I’m a huge fan of Macromedia’s products, so I’m a little nervous about what could happen to my beloved Studio MX. Then again, combining two giants might yield even better products and better service. For $3.4 billion Adobe is going absorb the company to expand it’s creation of digital documents.

Adobe (Research), best known for its Acrobat Web document-sharing software, said the deal would help it meet rising customer demand for wider-ranging applications with audio and video options, which are compatible with hand-held devices.

Macromedia (Research) gives Adobe access to the dominant animated graphics software on the Internet, which is also aggressively expanding into mobile phones.

With Adobe’s handheld services and Macromedia mobile phone technology, we may be whitnessing the birth of a totally new media.

CNN.com || Adobe to buy Macromedia for $3.4B