Recently, there has been talk of a proposed bill in Congress which could give the White House the authority to control the internet in the event of an emergency.  Bill S.773, also called the Cybersecurity Act of 2009, introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Sen. Olympia Snow (R-ME), presents the potential for a sort of internet martial law.  One of the biggest criticisms of the bill is the apparent vagueness of the language (gosh, when has that ever been a problem for Congress?) and the extent, duration, and exact qualities of the seizure of powers.  It seems to step on the idea of private property; the government’s bureaucracy can choose to set standards for software for any privately owned critical infrastructure.

Those in support of the bill point toward the fact that in the event of a cyber Pearl Harbor or 9/11, the government would be able to seize control and maintain internet (and economic) stability.  It’s almost like the bill’s proponents all recently saw Live Free or Die Hard and want to avoid the possibility of a fire sale happening like in the movie.  But I think the bigger point here is this: why on Earth would I want the federal government writing a bill on internet security, when most of the leaders in Congress (old white men) confess that they don’t know how to use email?

Once upon a time in a faraway land, there was a kingdom.  And in this kingdom there was a single king.  His name was Google.  There were other nearby kingdoms, called Yahoo and MSN Live Search, but they were so small and inconsequential that none of the peasants bothered to go there.  The common man worshipped at the altar of King Google.  The people knew how to please him, how to draw his attention and praise, how to earn his favor.  They also knew what made King Google angry, what would get them excommunicated from the Googleverse forever (or maybe a year).

Then suddenly a new kingdom rose from the ashes of the MSN Live Search kingdom.  The new land declared itself BING! and posed a challenge against King Google.  Though they started small, they began to grow week by week.  Suddenly, the peasants are beginning journeys to Bing and this has started to cause problems.  What does King Bing want that’s so different from King Google?

This is the question on many an SEO or internet marketer’s mind lately.  It used to be okay to optimize pages for just Google in the past, but the rise of Bing has caused some to question the differences between the search engines to properly optimize for both.  Naturally, the algorithms are unknown and it is complicated by the fact that sometimes Bing lists just five results with other categories listed below.  The biggest difference seems to be that the focus for Bing is content and internal source data, Google’s is inbound links and the mystical page rank.

Since Bing is still in its early days, I expect a lot of tweaks to their system and hope for them, considering one of my clients found themselves listed second and third on Bing for their most relevant keyword, but the link listed second was dead!  This kind of mistake is surely not one that can lead to continued success for Bing.  Some marketers have talked about creating separate optimized pages for each, but I think this idea is ridiculous.  A good site is loaded with content and it just doesn’t make sense to recreate dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of pages to appeal to each search engine. However, being optimized for both could lend almost 100% of the domestic search market, making this idea tempting.  If the basic rules of SEO are followed – quality (relevant) content, crawlable sites, valid page rank through quality inbound links and references, and proper SEO-friendly site infrastructure, you should rank well on both in most cases.

The old adage says that “all press is good press,” but with the omnipresence of social networks, this theory may change.  It can be relatively easy to achieve celebrity in a socially networked world, but it seems to be just as easy to achieve notoriety and infamy.  People might forget the negative press.  YouTube never forgets.  Facebook never forgets.  Twitter never forgets.  Google won’t forget.

During last night’s Video Music Awards on MTV, the bastion of youth and all things pop culture, Kanye West got a lot of press.  An awful lot of press.  More specifically, an awful lot of negative press.  He stole the spotlight from current America’s sweetheart Taylor Swift when she won the award for Best Female Video.  He rushed onstage, stole the microphone and proclaimed that Beyoncé actually deserved the award (despite Beyoncé’s somewhat embarrassed, sheepish, and shocked look).  He was promptly booed offstage and then the SocNet firestorm began.  Facebook was abuzz with angry fans burning him in internet effigy.  Celebrities took to their Twitter accounts and began name-calling.  YouTube was filled with clips from the VMA’s – not of the performances or awards, but just of Kanye’s outburst.  Google’s Hot Trends the next afternoon showed  related keywords at # 11, 14, 18, 20, 23, and 37 – just within the top 50.  Suddenly all this negative press sent the mainstream media into a frenzy, digging up each and every embarrassing, negative, and controversial thing Kanye West has ever said or done, like the surprising Hurricane Katrina telethon outburst from several years ago.

Being a buzzword or trend might get you talked about, but the negative stigma is not one that can go away; everything on the internet is there forever in some capacity.  The firestorm around him will be short-lived (social networks have even shorter memories than goldfish), but the infamy from that one evening will change the course of his career.  Now, when fans search for his name, they will always be reminded of this series of events.  This kind of SocNet press is definitely not good press.

An often overlooked and undervalued aspect of the SEM campaign is the negative keyword.  I don’t think I even used negative keywords in the first few SEM campaigns I worked on many years ago.  However, neglecting these is a rookie mistake that can result in poor click through rates and wasted clicks. Negative keywords exclude certain words and phrases from queries, enabling you to target your market more successfully and optimize your campaign fully.

One important example I have run across a great deal is in automotive search engine marketing.  Because the makes and models of most automobiles are words and names of other common terms in the lexicon, it is important to exclude unrelated terms.  “Ford” might be an important keyword for someone with a Ford dealership or with Ford listings of cars or trucks.  However, the generality of the term in it’s broad match state could generate ads on queries for Henry Ford, Betty Ford, Harrison Ford, fording a river, or Ford Motor Credit. Someone searching for the Betty Ford Clinic is not interested in ads for a Ford Focus, but because of the common term of Ford, this kind of search could trigger your automotive ad, wasting impressions.

Start generating a list of negative keywords by first looking at every word in your keyword list.  Begin brainstorming terms that use other meanings of the word or words in your list and expand from there (searches for Lincoln cars could exclude words like Abraham, Nebraska, logs, etc.).  Scour the search tools you used to generate your keyword list and find anything in the lists that don’t belong and add those terms to your negative keyword list.  One source I’ve found to be extremely helpful is having multiple pairs of eyes look at the keyword list.  Computers can miss the somewhat odd human connections that we make, so have friends and coworkers take a look at the list and see if there are any negative keywords you might have missed.  Using negative keywords, and using them well, can and will lift click through rates significantly.

A few months ago, there was a big hubbub about changes Yahoo made to their search marketing terms of service.  They announced that they were now allowing themselves unfettered access to make changes to your campaigns at will, courtesy of their “search marketing specialists.”  This access was such that you had to go out of your way to opt out of it, rather than as a bonus you could opt into.  Much of the search blogosphere was strongly opposed to these changes because it is unlikely that corporate search drones could understand the nuances of a particular account’s market, product, target audience, and goals, especially in smaller campaigns.  Many people whose campaigns were hijacked noticed additional keywords added (largely very expensive, generic keywords that pulled costs way up), paused negative keywords (which dragged costs way up), generic ad copy, which at times contradicted the very product they were selling, or reorganized ad groups that were not in line with a coherent plan for that particular account. I read very few responses that expressed any positive feedback on these changes – except for those that came directly from the Yahoo! blog.

A few days ago, there were some changes made to one of the accounts I manage.  I was alerted via email three days after the changes took effect.  I looked into it, wondering what sort of changes I would find, and I ended up in a hysterical laughing fit.  Two ads were added to an ad group in one of my Yahoo! accounts; I was thankful for the very minor changes, knowing I wouldn’t have to go back in and overhaul my campaigns.  The ad copy wasn’t awful, it was far too generic, but at least it didn’t contradict the meaning of the ad.  Then I looked a little closer.  Now, these changes are supposedly made by specialists, but clearly these specialists haven’t finished elementary school because in one of the ads they created, there were not one, but two spelling errors.  That’s a pretty impressive feat for just 70 characters.  Since when does “choose” have three o’s in it?  Also, if the content of the ad is about apartment listings, wouldn’t it be crucial to actually spell the word apartment correctly?  I couldn’t help but laugh at the blatant errors and make a comment to a coworker to the tune of “no wonder Yahoo is a distant second behind Google.”  My Google rep has never recommend I write ad copy that isn’t spelled correctly.  It’s been proven time and time again that misspellings in ad copy look unprofessional and I have to say that I was frustrated that the misspelled ad ran for three days before I was alerted to the changes.

This policy change has proven just how misguided Yahoo’s perception of search marketing is.  If this was a program you could opt into (like Google’s Website Optimizer and similar tools), it could be seen as helpful and beneficial and maybe win Yahoo some supporters.  Instead, it just looks like a money-grubbing attempt to hijack campaigns in hopes of adding more expensive keywords and generic ad copy.  If you get an email from Yahoo, check every single change to make sure that everything is copacetic.  Don’t take their word that the changes are made by specialists and that they will improve your conversions.

Keywords are Absolutely Essential

There is so much to say about keywords, I can’t possibly put it all in one post – they are that important.  Once you’ve fleshed out your goal, you need to dive headfirst into your search for keywords.  Establish the most important keywords for your campaign and use them as the cornerstone of your account; these are the essence from which your ad groups will grow.  Every search is a question and you ought to formulate your search terms in such a way that they present the answers. Here are some key points to keep in mind as you work through keyword development.

First, more is more.  Search everywhere for keywords.  Look through your site/landing page for key terms.  Use keyword generators on SEM Web sites.  Perform searches on each of the search engines and check out related terms.  Get low-tech and use a thesaurus.  Keyword inspiration can come from a number of sources, but when you start researching you want to have too many to fit into your account.  You can whittle them down later, but it’s good to start with a vast number of keywords to figure out the depth and breadth of your ad groups.

Multi string search terms will probably be the core of your best converting terms.  You should have very few single keywords in your account.  Generally speaking, single word keywords are too generic to draw qualified traffic to your site.  Imagine you bid on the keyword “bankruptcy.”  It’s a very expensive keyword in general, but the searches that would bring up your ad could be bankruptcy law, avoiding bankruptcy, life after bankruptcy, bankruptcy counseling, bankruptcy court, or any number of other permutations of the word bankruptcy.  Only a handful of them would probably be relevant to your site, but you could lose a lot of money in wasted clicks from irrelevant sources.  If you specialize in avoiding bankruptcy, then focus in that direction in your keywords. There really is no such thing as being too specific.

After you have your extensive list of keywords, start separating them into your ad groups by category.  Eliminate any keywords that are too generic or irrelevant.  Keep closely related terms in the same ad groups (this helps you when you create your ad copy).  Insert location related terms if you’re using geo-targeting.

As you refine your keywords, you’ll also want to start thinking about negative keywords – which is the next step!

I decided to start an “SEM for Dummies” style series to help teach SEM novices how to build, develop, and optimize a viable paid search campaign, without all the boring, obvious, and typically unnecessary prattle you’d get in a webinar or multi-day conference. If you think the place to start is the keywords or even the landing page then you are very, very wrong.

The first step of any good campaign is to figure out the goal: what is your action point?  Are you trying to get email subscriptions, make a sale, find a lead, qualify a lead, generate page views, or serve a branding purpose?  Once you can answer that question, then and only then can you start figuring out how to draw people to your site.

You need an idea of where you’ll be landing your searches – a landing page, home page, microsite, or store page.  You’ll develop the page later, but you need to know what question your page is answering.  Search is a conversation – the query is the question and your page is the answer.  What are you answering, how are you answering, and what can you do to make sure that you have fully participated in the conversation? These are all pieces of your goal, ways of drawing people to your desired action point.

Before you draw up a list of keywords, before you play with ad copy, and before you test you must know what your goal is.  You may have more than one goal, in which case you will want to separate them into individual campaigns.  Specificity is key.  If a client wants you to build a paid search campaign for them, you should know everything about the goal, their vision, and your vision before you go to the next step: keywords.

Local marketing is an incredibly important, but often overlooked part of marketing.  It is important to remember that most businesses are small businesses which don’t have the substantial marketing budgets that major companies have.  The tactics these mega companies use also aren’t the ones that will work for small businesses.  For a long time, many of these businesses relied primarily on door hangers and the yellow pages.  In the internet generation there are better, more cost effective ways of marketing locally.

A recent comScore study said that search engines are the primary sources for seeking local services at 31% (above the yellow pages at 30%, online yellow pages at 19%, and local search at 11%).  While the margin between search engines and the yellow pages is small, in the coming years that gap is only going to widen.  A simple ad in the yellow pages won’t draw in business the way it used to.  People aren’t looking in the yellow pages.  They’re searching businesses nearby on their Google or Mapquest maps.  They’re searching for the type of business and their city or county name or zip code.  They’re using their mobile phone to download apps that tell them what they want to know.  For this very reason, small businesses need to learn to use search to their advantage.

Some tactics for where to start building up local followings and using search in your favor:

• Build a good Web site, one that imparts information and answers as many of the questions you get as possible without giving it all away.
• Encourage customers to submit reviews to sites like Citysearch, Yelp, etc.  Getting a few bad reviews is normal, but if your company is sound, the good reviews will follow.  If people see that one company has 20 or 30 reviews and another has zero, most people are more apt to visit the company with the reviews.
• Start SEM.  You can start small, targeting just the metro area, a certain city, or a radius around that city.  Build out specific keywords for your business.  Use company branded keywords, specific industry terms, anything that people associate with your company.  Avoid broad based keywords like “cars” or “restaurant” because those clicks will be expensive and not well targeted to your specific customer base.
• Start a company blog, Twitter account, or build out fan pages on Facebook or Myspace.  Find a sounding board for fans of your business to gather, share information, and keep your company top of mind and at the top of the search engines.

Start with these tips and buzz will grow.  Most companies in the current economy are focusing heavily on finding new customers, but these tips will help you to maintain brand loyalty as well as reaching out to your market.

In one of the many blogs I read recently a surprising statistic jumped out at me; unfortunately, I can’t remember where I read the stat.  It said that 47% of online marketers use analytics to measure campaigns.  When I read this, my jaw dropped.  What are the other 53% doing? Randomly guessing? Basing optimization decisions on what campaign looks the prettiest?

Analytics are paramount to understanding optimization – from SEO to SEM to email campaigns and more.  Regardless of the platform you use (whether it’s Google Analytics on the low end or something like Omniture at the high end), I cannot stress its value enough.  Whether you measure marketing success with page views, form sign-ups, email subscriptions, or purchases, you have to know how to measure your successes, perform A/B or split tests, and drill down into all the layers of your site or campaigns.  Knowledge can directly correlate with success and ROI when you’re dealing with online marketing.

If you’re in the 47%, congratulations.  I hope you’re using every piece of data to your best advantage.  If you’re in the 53%, I wish you good luck… and encourage you to seek more information from any number of analytics packages.

Rule #1 in a down economy: Don’t stop using techniques that work!  Budgets are being cut left and right with the recession, but the problem is that people are cutting valuable techniques, and thus are limiting really successful campaigns.  If a PPC campaign costs $3650, but is showing a 400% return on ad spend, why on earth would you cut it to $500?  That makes no earthly sense.  Don’t quit using techniques that work! Trim the fat from nebulous or unclear marketing campaigns, lower your overhead, do what it takes, but the fact is, if it works and pays for itself, there is always money in the budget.