Website Optimization News Blog & Website Marketing Blog

Search Marketing Expo - SMX West Rates Increase January 10, 2009

2009-01-05T15:08:00.000-05:00

Silicon Valley search engine marketing (SEM) conference features more than 50 sessions programmed by the editors of Search Engine Land; All Access pass rate of $1195 expires at 11:59PM PST on January 9

Redding, CT (PRWEB) January 5, 2009 -- Search engine marketers interested in registering for the industry's must-attend conference, Search Marketing Expo - SMX West, should do so before January 10, 2009 in order to receive special early bird registration pricing. The early bird All Access conference rate of $1195 ends at 11:59PM PST on January 9; at midnight on January 10, the All Access ticket price increases to $1395.

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SMX West will take place in Santa Clara, CA from February 10-12. The agenda for the three-day multiple track event contains more than 50 sessions focusing on all aspects of search marketing.

Internet and search engine marketers of all skill and experience levels, from novice to expert, will benefit from attending SMX West. Sessions are organized thematically on topics including search engine optimization (SEO), paid search advertising (PPC), online/offline issues and landing page conversion. For those new to the field, SMX Boot Camp offers five sessions of search engine marketing fundamentals. The program also features "days" for in-house SEO program managers and web application developers who need to understand the impact of site architecture on SEM.

SMX West is being programmed by the editorial team of Search Engine Land, the leading news blog for search engine marketers. Search Engine Land Editor-in-Chief Danny Sullivan, who programmed the industry's first conference ten years ago, is program chair.

The full SMX West agenda is available online, as well as Sullivan's conference preview post published on Search Engine Land.

Registration Information

Registration from now through January 9th will be $1195 and then until February 9th the rate will be $1395. On-site registration will be $1595. One day access passes and networking-only passes are also available.

Register online for SMX West or by calling (877) 242-5242.

About Search Marketing Expo - SMX West and Third Door Media
Search Marketing Expo -- SMX West is produced by Third Door Media, Inc. Third Door Media's mission is to empower internet and search marketing professionals by providing trusted content and community services they need to be successful. Other Search Marketing Expo events include SMX East (New York City), SMX Advanced (Seattle), SMX Local & Mobile (San Francisco), SMX Social Media Marketing (New York City), SMX Search Analytics (Toronto), SMX London and SMX Munich.

Third Door Media also publishes Search Engine Land, the leading news blog for professional search engine marketers. The company also produces Search Marketing Now, a lead-generation marketing solution for suppliers of SEM-related products and services, and Sphinn.com, the place for web, online, search, interactive and internet marketers to share news stories, talk within subject-specific discussion forums, build a network and stay connected to hot topics in internet marketing.

AdWords: Can Google Dominate Internet & Mobile Advertising?

2008-12-15T00:11:00.000-05:00

Would you like Mobile AdWords with that order ? Google recently announced you can add mobile marketing ads as an extension to your web advertising initiatives with AdWords. The news isn't surprising since they recently launched their open source G1 cell phone and have been launching nearly everything in their back pockets to bring in more advertising dollars during the recession. However, the main point should be that mobile marketing is ripe for the taking and that Google may have the perfect solution to move in. "Google may be the first powerhouse company to both capture and dominate the mobile ad market."

Google’s chief Daniel Rubin explains:

“Today, we’re announcing a new campaign-level option that allows you to extend the reach of your text and image ads to show your AdWords ads on the T-Mobile G1, the iPhone, and other mobile devices that have full (HTML) Internet browsers. This new option will now allow you to display your ads specifically on these devices, create exclusive campaigns for them, and get separate performance reporting. We hope this option will help you more effectively reach your audience with the right message at the right time.”

AdWords Mobile will be for mobile websites and will allow you to display both text and image advertisements. This could be big news for iPhone app developers, too, who will now have another monetization stragety. I'm sure AdMob, one of the leaders in mobile marketing, will have some worrying to do. But, maybe not, since they have been able to establish themselves as a leader in the industry serving over 53 billion ads over the last couple of years.

Website Optimization Services, Website Marketing Companies

2008-11-20T18:21:00.003-05:00

Website optimization and website marketing campaigns are two entirely different entities. Website optimization consists of website back linking and meta tag optimization followed by watching search engines algorithms. Website marketing on the other hand is more of a broader scale it consists of seo (search engine optimization) and keywording such as pay per click, adwords and so on. Choosing a company that can get the job done can be a hard task that’s why when you choose a company for search engine optimization or website marketing check the companies references.

With This Economic State, Websites And Seo Are The Way To Growth And Profit

2008-11-07T12:02:00.001-05:00

Using SEO technology and original content, Website owners can be confident of being towards the top of Google search results;

Websites will be increasingly relied upon by State bodies as the most efficient and cost effective means of disseminating information to the population;

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of editing and organizing the content on a Webpage or across a Website to increase its potential relevance to specific keywords on search engines and, as importantly, ensuring that external links to the site are correctly titled and plentiful.

Google Puts Yahoo Deal On Hold

2008-11-02T22:54:00.001-05:00

s talks between Google, Yahoo and the U.S. Department of Justice drag on, investors are betting that the two Internet companies will walk away from a deal to jointly sell advertising on Yahoo's Web sites, and that Yahoo will end up selling its search business to Microsoft.

Investors bid up Yahoo's stock nearly 7 percent during regular trading Thursday after a flurry of conflicting news reports predicted Yahoo would soon announce another move, such as combining its search business with either Microsoft or AOL.

Representatives for Google and Yahoo issued statements saying they were continuing to talk to the Justice Department. Both companies declined to say when the talks might conclude.

"As we have said, we believe strongly that this agreement will strengthen Yahoo's competitive position in online advertising and will help to drive a more robust, higher-quality Yahoo marketplace for our advertisers, publishers and users," Yahoo spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said in an e-mail.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported that the companies could abandon the partnership as early as the middle of next week if differences with regulators are not resolved.

Yahoo announced in June that it had agreed to display Google advertisements on its Web sites in the United States and Canada in response to certain search queries. At the time, the companies said they would delay implementation for regulatory review.

month the companies announced they had agreed to another delay. Meanwhile, the Justice Department brought in Sandy Litvack, former head of the antitrust division, to consult on the deal, indicating that they were considering filing suit to stop it.

Google's internet marketing budgets "under stress"

2008-10-23T14:11:00.000-04:00

Internet search engine Google is being "more careful", according to its chief executive officer, Eric Schmidt, in an interview with Bloomberg.

As a result of the global economic instability, he says the company plans to make fewer acquisitions following profit growth this quarter slowing to its lowest level in the whole year.

Google has spent more than $3.38 billion (£1.99 billion) in the past year on acquisitions, extending its dominance to larger than that of Yahoo! and Microsoft, Bloomberg notes.

Mr Schmidt said that the current situation has led to companies - including newspapers - becoming "vulnerable" as advertisers' budgets shrunk and have to cut back on website marketing.

He added: "We're in a massive shift from how we're doing computing."

The news follows Yahoo!'s intention towards job cuts in order to save money, following a loss of half the company's share value since the failed Microsoft takeover in May.

It will be the second time the internet portal has laid off workers, following 1,000 redundancies made earlier this year, according to CNN.

How Website Design Important is in SEO

2008-10-02T15:29:00.000-04:00

Do you have to sacrifice all of the creative and artistic elements of your web site to rank in the search engines?

Thanks to the birth of professional search engine marketers the top ranks are saturated with the pages of companies that can pay for such insight. That said, it's certainly possible to employ high ranking tactics in your own website. Actually, the most basic tactics can move you up from an 800 position to a 300. However, it's the top of the scale where efforts seem almost inversely exponential or logarithmic, you put a ton in to see a tiny change in rank.

How do you meld the ambitious overhauls required to attain significant ranking and NOT compromise the design of your site?

DESIGN CAN'T BE IGNORED

If you have an existing site, you've probably tied it into your existing promotional content. Even if you've allowed your website to cater to the more free form of the net, it should still be designed as a recognizable extension of your business.

The reasons for doing so are valid, and can't simply be ignored for the sake of achieving a first age position, can they? If your research into search optimization leaves you shuffling around thoughts of content, keyword saturated copy and varying link text, you correctly understand some of the basic pillars of search engine optimization.

And, you aren't alone if you have this disheartening thought-If I do all this SEO stuff and reach number one across the board, who would stay at my site because it's so stale and boring I'm even embarrassed to send people there!

There are two ways to successfully combine design and SEO. The first is to be a blue chip and/or Fortune 500 company with multi million dollar advertising and branding budgets to deliver your website address via television, radio, billboards, PR parties and giveaways with your logo.

Since chances are that's not you, and certainly not me, lets look at the second option. It begins with some research into your market, some thoughtful and creative planning, and a designer who is a search engine optimizer, and understands at least basic CSS and HTML programming techniques. Or a combination of people with these skills that can work very well together.

DESIGN IS FOR BROCHURES, INSTANT RESULTS ARE FOR THE WEB

that’s not the whole truth, but it will help compare and contrast design and SEO. In reality, SEO needs the quantity and detail of supporting text that a brochure has, but good web design has to catch a viewer's attention in 5 seconds. It's pretty difficult to read and absorb the content of an entire brochure in less than 5 seconds.

Search engines need rich, related, appropriate, changing and poignant content. And for them to rank you, all of that must be on your pages. But if it's not well organized and broken down into bite size chunks, no one is going to bother learning about what you're offering.

Sadly, it's very difficult to optimize a site without completely overhauling it. You'll soon understand why. Design and SEO must be strongly rooted into every aspect of each other, possessing a true, symbiotic relationship. Lets look at a simplified example of this. Lets say you are optimizing a page for the keyword phrase, "pumpkin bread recipe."

From a design standpoint "Pumpkin Bread Recipe" would be the heading for the page, in a nice, readable font with the words perhaps an orange-brown color. And lets add a fine, green rule around it.

There are many ways to create that simple, colored heading. However, there is only one way that is best for both design and SEO. That is to use Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS. In addition, that line of code containing "Pumpkin Bread Recipe" needs to be as close to the top of the page as possible (which CSS also allows).

To a viewer, the recipe text might be read more if it were located to the right of a photo of a buttered piece of pumpkin bread on a small plate next to a lightly steaming cup of coffee.

SEO needs to read that ingredient list and baking instructions. Search engines now understand on a rudimentary level that the ingredients are indeed related to the optimized words- pumpkin bread recipe.

Additionally, it would take many extra lines of code to make a table in this example if you didn't use CSS. Search engines don't like extra code. In fact, given enough times, that "extra" code will make the keyword phrases seem less important and hurt rank.

Note: In the page code, a few thousand characters more than you need to get all of that content organized would normally just add to your page load time, and might be acceptable. But to a search engine, that time can really add up. It won’t read through page after page, site after site, billionth after billionth character of unimportant code to find the relevant text. Therefore, the less code, the better your chances. Moral- Less code, more content.

Search Engine Optimization - Marketing for Hard Economic Times

2008-10-02T15:25:00.001-04:00

SEO for Hard Economic Times

The U.S. economy is in the worse shape it's been in for many years. Consumers are spending less, banks are lending less, and major financial institutions are falling down like dominoes.

But as a business owner, you can't just throw in the towel. You have to push forward through these troubled times. At the same time, you have to be conservative. You need to find ways to bring in business while spending less on your marketing program each month. This is where I often sing the praises of search engine optimization (SEO), and with good reason.

About 90% of my business comes from people who find my website online, and then go on to contact me. Many of my clients enjoy similar levels of Internet success, because I've educated them on the subject. How do we bring in steady streams of new business through the Internet? Simple. We realize the value of search engine visibility, and we work hard to achieve it.

I define Internet visibility as the ease with which people can find you online. It directly corresponds to website traffic, which in turn corresponds to web-based leads, inquiries and sales. You can increase your Internet visibility in several ways, but search engine optimization is the brass ring in this department.

Doing More With Less - How SEO Drives Success

Now more than ever, it's important to squeeze as much success from your marketing program as possible. You have to be responsible with your budget and focus on techniques that bring maximum results in relation to the investment you make. Search engine optimization is the perfect solution for reducing your marketing budget, especially if you handle it yourself. And let me be the first to tell you -- you can handle much of it yourself, even if you have no Internet marketing experience.

SEO is like the gift that keeps on giving. With other forms of marketing, your exposure stops as soon as your payments stop. Take magazine ads for example. The moment you stop renewing your ad spot, the publisher will pull your ad

vertisement. Goodbye exposure. The same goes for TV advertising, radio, newspapers, the phone book ... even pay-per-click search marketing.

With SEO, however, the results are long lasting. Yes, it takes a lot of time and energy to achieve top rankings. But those rankings will remain for a long time, and with a minimal amount of "maintenance."

Recession-Proof Marketing Strategy

Let me give you a prime example of what I'm talking about. One of my past clients worked in the real estate industry. She realized the value of Internet visibility years ago, so she began a concentrated effort to improve her web presence. Naturally, I helped with the search engine optimization side of things. One of her close competitors relied more heavily on direct mail marketing and TV advertising, both of which can be quite expensive over time.

When the housing market began to slow down along with the economy, my client's competitor could no longer afford to spend as much on her paid advertising campaigns. So her marketing program and her exposure basically dried up.

My client, on the other hand, had been working hard on her web presence and her search engine visibility. So when tough economic times hit, she was perfectly positioned to "coast" right along. She didn't have to spend a bunch of money on paid advertising -- she had a steady stream of business leads coming in through her website. Low-cost marketing at its best! But none of this would have been possible without the SEO program she started several years ago.

What To Know About SEO

It reminds me of Aesop's fable about the ant and the grasshopper, which is basically a lesson in proper preparation. In that story, the carefree grasshopper played all through the summer, while the industrious ant worked hard to store food for the winter. When the winter came, the grasshopper was ill prepared for it. The lesson is simple. It is best to prepare for the days of necessity before those days come.

If, down the road, you would like to have a perpetual marketing system that requires a minimal investment of time and money, then you must be like the industrious ant here in the present. By starting a search engine optimization campaign now, you will enjoy a steady stream of business later on.

Google Pagerank Update

2008-09-27T15:50:00.004-04:00

Google has updated the pagerank for websites so if you dont have that "google toolbar" already on your browser go over to prchecker and see if your website was ranked higher or lower.

Transcend Marketing Group

Google Turns 10!!!!

2008-09-24T14:29:00.000-04:00

Google turns 10 on Sunday. In the corporate world, it's still just a baby--but the Internet king's meteoric rise makes this birthday a milestone.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company created the booming online advertising industry, turning Internet searches into cash to the tune of $16.5 billion in annual revenues. Google's stock price has a life of its own. It shot past $700 last year and has since fallen back to $450; its market cap is now at $142 billion, which puts it in league with the likes of Bank of America and Hewlett-Packard. Those companies, however, have annual revenues of more than $100 billion.

Since going public, the company has used its Googlebucks to acquire a slew of innovative startups--ranging from photo-sharing service Picasa, video site YouTube and even the core of its Google Earth mapping service. It also has raised a bunch of homegrown consumer favorites, including e-mail service Gmail and social networking site, Orkut.

The number of searches it handles has grown astronomically. In 1998, Google reported that it handled 10,000 searches a day. That number leaped to 500,000 a day in 1999. Google doesn't share those numbers widely now, but research group comScore estimates that Google hosted 235 million searches a day in July of this year.

There's another way to gauge Google's growth. The first Google index in 1998 had 26 million Web pages. In July, a Google search engineer tallied up how many unique URLs the company searches to find content: the number was 1 trillion. At this rate, a "googol" worth of pages (or 1 followed by 100 zeros) can only be a few years away.

Now the Internet king is going after much more: It wants to be a worldwide data center that stores every piece of personal and corporate information. Google is pushing cloud computing to accomplish this--and challenging tech's old top dog Microsoft to pick up the pace or go home. This week, Google unveiled Chrome, a Web browser aimed at toppling Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Google's maverick corporate culture and slogans have also made headlines. Employees work inside a compound that mimics a college campus, get free organic meals and are allowed to work on a pet project one day a week. The company has said repeatedly that it wants to make the world a better place. Its defining slogan was "Don't be evil," but it has been officially modified to "You can make money without doing evil."

Indeed, Google has become one of those companies that epitomizes an era, introducing literally transformative technology on the global stage.

But Google's meteoric rise wasn't part of a calculated plan--initially. Back in 1998, Stanford grad students Larry Page and Sergey Brin just happened to take an interest in organizing information on the Web, and in true Silicon Valley fashion, they founded Google in a friend's Menlo Park, Calif., garage.

Soon after, Google stumbled upon a way to make money from advertisements placed alongside online searches results and hired Eric Schmidt, who had headed Novell and served as chief technology officer at Sun Microsystems for adult supervision. The trio of Schmidt, Page and Brin have turned Google into a money machine and innovation powerhouse.

But what goes up must come down, right? Probably. Wall Street used to count on Google for hitting or surpassing analysts' earnings targets, but the company had a few misses the past year due to hiring sprees and technical changes to its search algorithms.

And there's the perennial question of whether Google needs to diversify its revenue stream in case businesses find better and cheaper ways to advertise. So far, the company hasn't found another way to make money--and it's not very concerned about it either. Google believes that if superior technology finds users, users will help it find a business plan.

Oh, let's not worry about all that boring stuff now. It's time to celebrate 10 years in business. But don't expect music, dancing and laughter at the Googleplex Sunday. Even though Google was incorporated on Sept. 7, the company says it has never partied on this day and doesn't plan to start now.

Advertisers seek to block Yahoo-Google pact

2008-09-22T20:06:00.000-04:00

Yahoo and Google have argued that the partnership will actually bolster competition in the search advertising market, by strengthening Yahoo's balance sheet and allowing the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company to invest in its own search service.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google has also stressed that prices for the keywords used in search advertising are set through auctions, meaning that advertisers will only pay more for advertising on Yahoo sites if they believe they will get more in return.

Critics, however, have argued that other factors, such as tweaks in each search providers' technology, also contribute to the price of search advertising.

In addition, critics say that the higher prices Yahoo will be able to enjoy through the Google partnership will encourage its expansion, allowing Google to spread its influence over the search-advertising market even further than it has already.

According to data released last week by comScore Inc., Google's share of the online search market in the U.S. grew to 63% in August, while Yahoo's share fell to just below 20% and Microsoft's share fell to 8.3%.

In her letter to the ANA, Yahoo's Schneider stressed that the company doesn't plan to funnel more business through Google.

"This is exactly the opposite of our business goals in pursuing this agreement," Schneider wrote. "The sponsored search connection to Google should ultimately shrink, not grow, over time -- because we are focused on growing our own business, NOT Google's."

Microsoft, 8x8 in technology new marketing deal

2008-09-18T02:44:00.001-04:00

oice over Internet Protocol provider 8x8 Inc. on Wednesday announced a technology partnership and marketing agreement with Microsoft Corp.

Santa Clara-based 8x8 (NASDAQ:EGHT) said Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) will offer its VoIP phone service through Microsoft's Response Point small business phone system.

Under terms of the agreement, Packet8 and Microsoft Response Point will jointly market the service and "will also investigate potential collaboration in selling the combined offering through business retail partners," the companies said.

Both companies will also promote the offering on their Web sites.

DMOZ FOR SALE?

2008-09-16T15:15:00.001-04:00

Jeremy Shoemaker, of the popular Shoemoney blog, posted that the owners of Best of the Web Directory are in talks to buy Dmoz from AOL and that a "deal could be reached fairly soon."

It is unknown whether a sale would change Google's use of Dmoz for its own directory or would prompt Google to reconsider how much weight it gives the sites linked within Dmoz. For those who don't know, Google is still relatively cozy with Dmoz in that it maintains a Google Directory that is a duplicate copy of the dmoz.org content. Dmoz also is still considered a great place for your site to be listed to gain premium Google link power that helps your PageRank.

Over the last year Google has made it clear they don't like the selling of links from anywhere, especially directories. Google has also made clear that it considers the selling of inclusion in a directory tantamount to selling links. Many directories have experienced a severe lowering of their PageRank that have effectively made links (and inclusion) less valuable to potential buyers.

Since Dmoz is a free directory with moderators who decide whether a site is included or not, Google still gives their coveted Google juice to sites listed in Dmoz.

A listing in BOTW.org is not free. It charges a hefty $249.99 review fee which is a prerequisite for inclusion. BOTW makes the point in bold font that their review for inclusion is not a guarantee of inclusion in their BOTW Submit Terms of Service. Apparently Google believes there is enough editorial value in these reviews because BOTW.org still has good PageRank within its categories.

However, Google has penalized many other directories that charge for inclusion reviews. Many website owners feel that even the appearance of selling links leads to PageRank reduction. BOTW is an old, established directory with lots of quality listings similar to Yahoo, which also sells inclusion reviews and suffers no repercussions from Google either.

A few questions ...

- If BOTW buys Dmoz, will it merge the directories and charge for inclusion reviews?

- Will Google continue to mirror the Dmoz results for its directory?

- Will any of this impact the Google juice your sites get from Dmoz?

One thing is certain, the concept of volunteer editors that Dmoz uses is flawed. BOTW and its paid editors may be exactly what Dmoz needs to turn its quality around.

Google narrows down your whereabouts with My Location

2008-09-14T01:12:00.000-04:00

On Thursday Google announced an easier way for Windows Mobile users to find the nearest restaurant with the release of Search with My Location.

Previously, when you went to google.com from your phone and performed a local search, the results were tailored to the last location you entered. Now, taking advantage of the Gears Geolocation API, Search with My Location approximates your position using the same Cell ID technology used in Google Maps for Mobile.

So, say if you're on a hot date--or even not-so hot, OK the amount of hotness doesn't matter right now--and you've decided on sushi, but at the last minute your date reveals to you that he or she is allergic to not only fish, but rice as well. After ~~arguing~~ discussing why this was not made clear earlier, you break out your trusty Blackberry, search Google for pizza--you're obviously fed up at this point--and receive a list of local pizzerias in your current area. Or maybe just businesses thought to sell pizza. Actually it's unclear how precise the technology is. Does it search for online menus or just go by name?

Anyway, restaurants are not the only thing you'll have the option to search for. By typing "weather" into the search, you'll receive the local forecast as well.

Google states that "We take your privacy seriously and have designed Search with My Location so that it doesn't associate your location with any personally identifiable information, even if you are logged in." According to Google, it won't send your location until you opt in and you can always opt out.

For a list of devices that support Search with My Location check here. Don't fret too much if your phone isn't listed since Google is working with vendors to add support for future phones.

The service is only available in the U.S. and U.K. initially. If you'd like to try it out, just visit google.com on your compatible phone and click the My Location link under the search box. You can check out a tutorial video--complete with a lame acoustic guitar--for the service here.

Transcend Marketing Group, More than an optimization Company!!

2008-09-11T12:43:00.005-04:00

Transcend Marketing Group a website optimization company will be working with a top real estate directory in conjunction with International Real Estate Directory (IRED). Websites that will be marketed, optimized, and advertised will be on a more broader scale then just simple search engine marketing. Real estate has since picked up from the recent slow down and this marketing aspect in the real estate industry may help create a better business growth for the real estate industry.

Transcend Marketing Group
Contact: 1-888-250-3088
Email: info@transcendwebsites.com

MSN AdCenter News

2008-09-11T02:45:00.000-04:00

MSN AdCenter is Microsoft’s Paid Search application for the MSN search engine. MSN is a distant third in the search engine market, behind giants Google and Yahoo. As such, some site owners will decide it isn’t worth pursuing paid clicks on MSN because the volume is so low compared to Google and Yahoo.

This is a mistake. MSN can surprisingly provide a very good return on investment (ROI) and an even better return on ad spend (ROAS) - 2 key factors when evaluating the results of a paid advertising campaign. Like the other Pay-Per-Click advertising engines, Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing, setting up your account logically, activating conversion tracking, and, of course, trial and error can help you determine rather quickly whether or not AdCenter is good for your website.

Opening an AdCenter Account

You’ll want to start at the Sign Up screen. You’ll be required to choose where your ads will be shown and in what language. Like Google and Yahoo, you can specify individual areas of the United States, which can be very handy if you’re trying to market to a local area. Next, you’ll be asked to create an ad, then choose keywords. For this reason, it would be a good idea to start the process by pre-determining your campaign structure (more on this later). After creating a basic ad, you’ll be asked to set your monthly budget and a maximum cost per click. Choose the amount you’re comfortable with, enter it, and you’ll be asked a final set of questions to complete the account signup process. Here, you can set up payment processing. Automatic credit card debits are preferred, so that you don’t either go offline should funds run out, or have to manually enter payment every time you need to replenish the account. Setting a budget prevents your card from being charged more than you expected to pay every month.

There is a $5 fee to open the account. While it seems unnecessary to charge consumers $5, this is a minor inconvenience by Microsoft. AdCenter is relatively easy to use from here on out. Seasoned Pay-Per-Click advertising professionals might disagree, though, because of AdWords’ advanced features. Once again, this is why you should allocate a very small percentage of your budget to AdCenter initially.

Yahoo names former Microsoft exec to head U.S. sales

2008-09-11T00:11:00.002-04:00

Yahoo inc. named a former Microsoft Corp. executive to head its ad sales force in the United States and said a longtime employee who held that position is leaving for a venture capital firm.

Sunnyvale-based Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) on Tuesday named Joanne Bradford to the post as David Karnstedt departed for Redpoint Ventures, which has an office in Menlo Park.

Bradford's title will be senior vice president of U.S. revenue and market development, and her focus will be boosting Yahoo's display advertising market share as the company launches new products.

She worked for both Los Angeles-based Spot Runner Inc. and Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), where she helped the company increase its focus on online advertising.

Google Chrome: is it out of this world?

2008-09-10T18:16:00.000-04:00

Everything the search giant Google touches seems to turn to gold, from Gmail, its free web-based email service, to its latest and most ambitious project - a new internet browser, Chrome.


	Less an internet browser and more an operating system: Google Chrome

Google's answer to Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser, Chrome may only have been released last Tuesday, but it's already making a huge splash.

Take the Telegraph's own website, for instance. On Monday of this week - just six days after the beta, or test, version of Chrome was launched - 1.8 per cent of all visitors to our website were using the new Google browser. What makes it more interesting is that visitors to our website are a conservative bunch - almost two-thirds are running Microsoft's Windows XP operating system, 17 per cent use the newest version, Vista, while 9 per cent use Macs and 1 per cent run Linux. So, for such a significant number of Telegraph online readers to have jumped on the "early adopters" bandwagon and downloaded a beta version of a week-old internet browser is very telling.

Graham Jones, an internet psychologist, says this apparent "leap of faith" can be put down to the "Google Factor".

"People trust Google," he says. "They are more likely to take the risk of downloading and trying the new software if it's made by a trusted brand. There's also a mistrust of Microsoft. Some people feel that when they buy a Windows computer and find Internet Explorer pre-loaded, they feel compelled to use it. They feel it takes away their choice.

"People like to feel in control, so opting for a browser from a trusted brand helps them to take back some of that control."

Google appears to be directly challenging Microsoft's dominance of both the online and offline computing worlds.

"It challenges not just Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser but also its Windows desktop by supporting richer web applications less dependent on standard operating systems," says Laurent Lachal, an analyst with Ovum.

Much has been made by Google of the fact that Chrome is a browser designed for a new era of internet use.

"We realised that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser," says Google. "What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build."

One of Chrome's major selling points is its ability to treat each open web page as a separate "process". It also means that Chrome can handle hefty tasks usually performed by dedicated software, installed on the hard drive. Photo editing, for example, could be done through Chrome using an online service such as Google's Picasa rather than installed software such as Adobe Photoshop. Similarly, word processing tasks could be performed through the browser, online, using the Google Docs service rather than Microsoft Word.

In short, Chrome's sheer processing "grunt" could, in time, make it less an internet browser and more like an operating system, capable of running complex software online, accessible from any computer with an internet connection, rather than installing programs on a single machine.

And, of course, any aspirations that Google might have for its browser to become a web-based operating system represents a serious threat to the likes of Microsoft, which owes much of its success to the ubiquitous presence of the Windows operating system on millions of computers.

The early signs seem to indicate that while Chrome has a long way to go before it commands a similar slice of the market to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, it is chipping away at its user base. Other browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox, are feeling the benefits of Google's disruptive entry into the fray.

"Internet Explorer took the entire market share hit from Chrome," says Vince Vizzaccaro, executive vice-president of marketing for web-monitoring firm Net Applications. "The rest of the alternative browsers all had gains as well." None the less, Internet Explorer still accounts for almost three-quarters of the browser market, with Firefox taking second place with a 20 per cent share.

According to Net Applications, Chrome has taken between a 1 and 2 per cent share of the global browser market in the week since its launch. Its early success, combined with the fact that Internet Explorer has lost about 5 per cent of its market share since the start of the year, means that Google is in a strong position.

Chrome's prospects could be boosted significantly by the launch of Android, a Google-backed operating system for mobile phones. Android is designed to bring the things people enjoy on desktop computers to a mobile device, and browsing the web is critical to that. Sergey Brin, one of Google's co-founders, said that although Chrome was unlikely to appear on first-generation Android phones, expected soon, future versions would probably have it.

Mobile web browsing, such as with Apple's iPhone, is the next big battlefront. If Google can translate its dominance of web search into web browsing as a whole, both on computers and on mobile devices, then Chrome could become as ubiquitous as Internet Explorer has been - in time, it could become the only software your computer needs.

Investment in analytics, SEO urged

2008-09-10T01:09:00.000-04:00

Businesses should invest in web analytics and search engine optimisation (SEO) to make the most of the online channel, according to Microsoft's Mel Carson.

The expert said on the Microsoft adCenter Analytics blog that the two areas are essential for internet marketing success as analytics help firms to capitalise on emerging web trends, while SEO is one of the most vital advertising channels online.

He cited a recent E-consultancy report suggesting that significantly more money is spent on paid search than SEO in the UK as potentially worrying considering the importance of search engine visibility and usability for businesses.

Mr Carson commented: "In order to build a better web experience for users we need to better understand their behaviour and then act - that means investing a little more time and energy into web analytics and SEO."

Josh Dreller of Fuor Digital recently wrote on the Search Engine Land blog that understanding web analytics is "vital" for all internet marketers as such applications can offer insights into why some website traffic is better than other types.

Chrome bags 1% share of global mkt in 4 days

2008-09-07T11:50:00.000-04:00

Chrome, Google’s desktop web browser, has created a record of sort by taking over 1% share of the global market within four days of its launch. But analysts say it will take a long while to unseat Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) which controls over 72% of the market. Analysts say the user group mainly belongs to the tech fraternity and users who actively use only Google web search, Gmail, Google reader and blogs.

Chrome is in direct competition with IE and Firefox, which enjoys 19.73% of the market share. The other browsers like Opera, Safari and Netscape are still fighting for a substantial market share. “Since the desktop is largely in the Microsoft domain, it is conceivable that IE will continue to enjoy its default browser status for the desktop in the near foreseeable future,” said KPMG executive director Akhilesh Tuteja.

Chrome with its simple looks and equipped with the most basic of browser functionalities is precisely what a no-frills user would want. But it lacks several features like bookmark managers which allow users to save files and webpages and view them anytime. Also the RSS reader which feeds users with news from the web is missing. Users have grown accustomed to these features and will want it on the Chrome. However, the clean and clear-cut browser makes the screen look uncluttered and larger in content area when compared to other browsers. Also, the tab feature on Chrome stands apart from the other browsers. It runs each tab in isolation from the other thus preventing the other tab from crashing it.

“All of Google's products are based on American ethos. It is simple to use despite its complex architecture," said Kaustubh Dhavse deputy director (ICT practice) Frost & Sullivan. However, this first version by Google runs only on Windows desktop, but new versions for Mac and Linux are expected to be released soon. "Google is striving to ensure that Chrome will work properly with the most popular sites on the web. Massive testing is expected, and it should work as well as a Firefox Beta. Initial tests of the Chrome are being done at a fast pace by thousands." said Mr. Tuteja.

According to Mr Dhavse, MS will have to constantly make changes and upgrade their browser features to appeal to the users, if they want to continue being the market leader. “The old format does not excite users anymore.” he said. Google comes from a web environment whereas MS comes from a OS environment which moved into the web space. The edge that IE has over the other browsers is that MS bundles the browser with its operating system (OS), so every user's default browser is IE and this plays in their favour.

Analysts are sceptical about the adoption of Chrome by enterprises as the browser is on a beta platform like all other Google products. “Everytime Google launches a product be it gmail or Orkut and now Chrome, it is on a beta platform. This is safe play by Google and is one of the major criteria for enterprises and governments not using their products.

It is not a fully tried and tested enterprise solution, whereas MS is the leader in this,” said another analyst who did not want to be named. “Google is focused on providing a great user experience, and we're releasing Google Chrome in beta so we can gather user feedback and quickly iterate to improve the product.” said a Google spokesperson in an emailed response to ET. Industry watchers say it will be interesting to watch out how the Google-Microsoft saga unfolds. Google in the past has accused MS of monopolising the OS and browser market by bundling their products and driving the consumer segment.

“Google is faced with a great paradox today. It is trying to create its own ecosystem just like MS. The winner will be one who can drive the market and sustain it,” said Mr Dhavse. However, Google might never accept this and claim it is challenging the presence of the other giants in the market. “Browsers are one of the most fundamental platforms for a user and Google wants to be there, they are playing their cards very well,” said another analyst on condition of anonymity.

However, Google said it believes in making the web an open platform for everyone to innovate on. "Our efforts are targeted at making the web better for everyone and further advance the openness of the web. Towards this objective Google Chrome has been developed and is being released as an open source project under the name Chromium. The intent is that Google will help make future browsers better by contributing the underlying technology in Google Chrome to the market, while continuing to develop additional features,” said a Google spokesperson.

Google launches internet browser

2008-09-01T21:51:00.000-04:00

Google is launching an open source web browser to compete with Internet Explorer and Firefox.

The browser is designed to be lightweight and fast, and to cope with the next generation of web applications that rely on graphics and multimedia.

Called Chrome, it will launch as a beta for Windows machines in 100 countries, with Mac and Linux versions to come.

"We realised... we needed to completely rethink the browser," said Google's Sundar Pichai in a blog post.

The new browser will help Google take advantage of developments it is pushing online in rich web applications that are challenging traditional desktop programs.

Google has a suite of web apps, such as Documents, Picasa and Maps which offer functionality that is beginning to replace offline software.

"What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build," Mr Pichai, VP Product Management, wrote.

The launch of a beta version of Chrome on Tuesday will be Google's latest assault on Microsoft's dominance of the PC business. The firm's Internet Explorer program dominates the browser landscape, with 80% of the market.

Why You Need To Keep Within Keyword Density

2008-08-31T21:45:00.000-04:00

Keyword density is another major factor that will,and should,play a significant role in your article content. It would be helpful to remember that keyword density should professional upholstery cleaning between 1. However, using too low of an amount of keywords will get your article lost in the search engine optimization shuffle.

If you pack your article keywords on the high end of the density,your article can then be considered to be keyword stuffed. It would be best to try to keep your keyword density in the 2 range. With this carpet rug cleaning density range, your articles will have a nice range of keyword density that will help your article with search engine placement.

Google Moving Ahead With Yahoo Deal

2008-08-29T12:15:00.000-04:00

By Meghan Keane August 29, 2008 | 10:01:55 AMCategories: Advertising, Antitrust, Google, Search, Yahoo

Google expects the Department of Justice to approve its advertising partnership with Yahoo by October, keeping the deal on schedule, and CEO Eric Schmidt says they are moving apace with implementation.

“We are going to move forward,” Schmidt told Bloomberg Television. “We are in the process of talking to the government. They've not indicated one way or the other how they're dealing with us.”

A Google spokesperson told Bloomberg after the interview that "Ultimately we have confidence that they'll be able to conduct their review within that time period and allow us to move forward.''

Google and Yahoo announced the non-exclusive partnership in June. To pre-empt anti-trust concerns arising from a partnership between the number 1 and 2 search engines, Google gave the DoJ three months to review the deal as a courtesy, though they did not consider it legally necessary.

“We always worry a little bit, but we think our arguments are pretty strong,” Schmidt said. “Yahoo has made it very, very clear they're going to take the best parts of their network and ours and combine them.”

SEO Contest Offers $100,000 Cash Prize

2008-08-28T10:25:00.000-04:00

What's the reward for reaching the top of Google? How does $100,000 sound. The Nukoo SEO Contest is giving that much away to the top internet marketing professional.

Columbia, MO (PRWEB) August 28, 2008 -- Nukoo Web Hosting (www.nukoo.net) announced its first annual Nukoo SEO Contest. The 2008 contest will feature a grandprize of $100,000. This grand prize will be awarded to the SEO professional that ranks the highest in Google's search engine results pages for a yet-to-be-announced keyword.

Entry forms and rules can be found on the Nukoo SEO Contest website at www.nukoo.com.

"Our goal is to give SEO professionals the chance to prove their techniques in making search more relevant for users," says Wes Upchurch (www.wesupchurch.com), the contest's sponsor. He say's "In this industry everyone claims to be the best. I say let them prove it."

This contest offers the largest cash prize of any SEO contest to date, and should draw a number of web designers, seo professionals, internet marketing gurus, and students who are seeking name recogonition to go along with the largest cash prize ever offered for such a contest.

Registration is now open. The contest is set to begin on November 1, 2008. Contestants will work battle it out for the highest ranking on Google during November and December. At 12:01 AM on January 1, 2009, a winner will have been determined. During the contest the current ranking of the top contestants will be displayed online. To register visit www.nukoo.com.

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Search Engine Marketing-How it Differs from Search Engine Optimization

2008-08-26T23:14:00.000-04:00

Non-profit organizations, universities, political parties, and the government can all benefit from search engine marketing. Businesses that sell products and/or services online can use search engine marketing to help improve their sales figures.

Some of the goals of search engine marketing are to develop a brand, generate media coverage, and enhancing a reputation, and to drive business to a physical location.

If you do not feel confident enough to try your own search engine marketing there are several companies that will microfiber upholstery cleaning to help you out for a price. If you decide to go with a search engine marketing company take your time and shop around, find a company that really suits your own businesses search engine marketing needs.

Stay away from companies that promise top rankings. Most companies that promise tope ranking are more interested in your money then they are in keeping your business. Quite often this upholstery cleaner company of company will charge you top doller, spend a few days making sure your website has a few basic requirements and that is the last you hear from them. This type of search engine marketing company is not really interested in repeat customers.

Tread carefully around companies that promise first page rankings on the major search engines like Google and Yahoo. Make sure these sofa cleaner are talking about sponsored listings and not just natural listings. Companies that are only after natural listings traditionally charge a large monthly fee, using a small portion of the money on sponsored listings, and pocketing the remainder.

The false promise most commonly used by shady search engine marketing companies is the money back guarantee. Generally if you read the contract very carefully you will lean that these companies have a very strange idea of major short term memory loss wiki engine. Companies that have a money back guarantee typically don't deal with the search engine movers and shakers like Google and Yahoo, instead they use small obscure search engines that are hardly ever used.

The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) was created in 2003 to offer the public educational resources about search engine marketing and to also promote search engine marketing. Currently SEMPO represents over 500 global search engine marketing companies. Sempo is happy to offer their resources to the public for free. SEMPO has offers upholstery cleaner company engine marketing training courses for any and all interested parties who would like to expand their knowledge of search engine marketing. SEMPO's objectives are to teach search engine marketing strategies, techniques, and successful practices, to increase the availability and quality f its professionals, and to offer training courses that will help to establish a benchmark for search engine marketing. The cost of a SEMPO training course can range anywhere from five hundred dollars for a fundamentals of search marketing class, to over two thousand dollars for an advanced search advertising course.