The eMarketing Blog

Two Easy Ways to Improve Your Local Search Results

2007-04-23T11:53:00.000-07:00

Does your business show up in local search results? If someone types in your location and business type, does your website show up (for example "attorneys in springfield ohio")?
If not, here are couple things you can do right now on Google to help that.
First, let's make sure Google knows about your business:
Step 1. Go to maps.google.com
Step 2. Choose Find Businesses
Step 3. Enter your search, e.g. "Attorneys" and "Springfield, Ohio"
Step 4. Look to see if your business shows up
Step 5. If it doesn't, or the information is incorrect, you can add it for free here.

What if you have more than one location? You can use the same link above to add multiple locations. I have an additional strategy for you as well: Create your own public map on Google Maps.
Google recently introduced a new feature that allows everyone with a Google account ( you can get one free, you already have one if you use gmail/analytics/adsense/adwords) to create custom maps that are public AND included in their search results. So, let's say you are a bankruptcy attorney. You could create a map of attorney practices in your area, and of course include your own practice. This map will show up for relevant searches.
To create your own Google map, go to maps.google.com, choose My Maps and sign in. Make sure you make the map public if you want it to show up in searches.

Make the most out of your error pages

2007-04-05T07:26:00.000-07:00

Wow, has it been a long time since I posted. I'll try to do better with shorter posts but more frequent.
Today's topic is the dreaded "404 not found error message". No matter how well you've designed and checked your site, some of your visitors will see this error message. You just can't control if people mistype a URL or if someone links to you with a typo-laden url.
Imagine the experience of a user who comes through one of those bad links. Are they going to find the typo and correct it? Unlikely I say, they'll probably just leave.
The solution is to create a custom error page. Make it look like the rest of the site, include a nice error message, and include links back to your homepage and to search/sitemap pages if you have them. Many webhosts will allow you to set a custom error page through your control panel. On an Apache server, you can also add this feature with one line of code in an .htaccess file. (Google ".htaccess" and "ErrorDocument" for more info). Once you have the feature up, double check that your server is still sending a 404 response (your viewers won't see this, but the search engines will). It's very important that the search engines see this or you might get hit with a duplicate content penalty. You can check your headers here.
I did a google search for pages named 404 to find a good example for you. Check out this video tutorial site. Once there, add a random file name (like ad8df.html) and see what comes up. Much nicer than the standard "404 file not found" page, isn't it?

Tags: seo, web design, 404

Google adds new features to Sitemaps

2007-02-08T07:12:00.000-08:00

Google recently launched new features to their webmasters' sitemaps product. For the uninitiated, Sitemaps allows webmasters to submit a sitemap to Google in order to improve how Google crawls your site. In return, Google provides a wealth of information, including any problems it has crawling your site, what keyword phrases your site ranks well for, anchor text of links to your site, and much more.
Today I noticed some new functions:

- A link tab has been added where you can see both external and internal links to your site. One of the frustrations with Google has been that the link command (link:yourdomain.com) shows only a small sampling of the links Google knows about. For example, link:etargeting.blogspot.com shows only one link. For years, webmasters have had to use either Yahoo or MSN to get a better estimate of inbound links. Well, sitemaps now solves that. While the link command in the search box shows only 1 link, sitemaps shows over 60. Now that's useful information!
It also shows internal links. This is useful to understand distribution of pagerank in your site. For example, the page with the highest links on one of my other sites is the privacy policy (because it's in the footer on each page). Not really what I want to be emphasizing. Although Google may be smart enough to "discount" these types of links, I don't want to take chances. I'll be putting a "no follow" on that link from now on.

- More information about how Google crawls your site, such as how many pages it requests a day (including a nice graph of the past 90 days). You can get this from your server logs as well, but this presents it very nicely. Not life-changing data, but it's interesting.

BTW, if you have a blog, you can add it to the sitemaps program as well. You'll have to edit your template to put a verification code in the header, and you can add your xml feed (e.g. atom.xml) as your sitemap.

Tags: Google Sitemaps, SEO

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Link age and search rankings

2007-02-06T07:45:00.000-08:00

New websites often struggle to reach top rankings in the search engines until they've been established for quite some time. There are a couple reasons why this happens. For one, it takes a while for the search engines to visit your site and index its pages. Second, it may take a while for the search engines to discover the links to your site (which greatly affect rankings).

But webmasters have suspected something else is going on. Indexing can happen very quickly, and links on influential sites are found very quickly as well. Even if this is the case, new sites still struggle to show up for a couple months. Why is that? Some have theorized that Google has a 'sandbox' where new sites are automatically penalized/quarantined for a set period. Others believe that Google (and Yahoo & MSN) only give full "ranking" value to links that have been established for some time. This makes sense, since it would negate the effects of spammers purchasing short term text links to get a ranking boost.

I don't think there is such a thing as a "sandbox", but I have seen a definite link aging effect. Let's take a look at the referrer metrics for a new site I've been managing. Some info about the site: created in July, fully indexed by the end of July, all links were created and discovered (confirmed by looking at google's cache) by the end of July as well. No new content was created after that month, and no new links were added (if anything some disappeared as they were part of a press release). The topic of the site is not seasonal, i.e. searches for the site's topic should be fairly steady throughout the year.

Here is the graph of traffic from Google. As you can see, there is a significant spike around December 1st, roughly 5 months after the site was created and links were established.

Here is the graph from Yahoo. You see a similar jump closer to January 1st. Notice the jump is not as pronounced (maybe link age is not weighted as heavily). The fact that the jump was later may indicate a longer aging period, or it may just reflect the fact that Yahoo is much slower at indexing sites and finding links.

Here is the graph from MSN. The jump is much sooner indicating either no link age penalty at all, or a very short one. This is consistent with my experience with other sites as well, any improvements in ranking show up in MSN first, then Google, then Yahoo.

To me, this is pretty conclusive evidence that all 3 (or at least 2) major search engines discount the value of links until they've existed for a while. What can we conclude from this? Have patience! Better search rankings and traffic don't happen overnight, don't be surprised if it takes months. Finally, if you are using sound SEO techniques, stick with it. Eventually it will pay dividends.

Tags: Links, Search Engines, SEO, Search Engine Optimization

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So long, Microsoft Office

2007-02-01T08:01:00.000-08:00

For the past four months, I've been using Microsoft Office 2007 (beta). Today, my beta trial expired. I can still open my applications and open files, I just can't edit them, save them or create something new.

Now, I understand that beta releases are meant to be temporary, so I don't blame them for turning it off, but I am a little peaved that I got no warning (and I'm not the only one). Most trial software I've used lets you know a few days ahead of time. If I'd gotten a reminder, I could have at least saved my Word 2007 documents in an older format. Now I can't read them at all, unless I buy Office 2007.

So now, I'm faced with a decision. Go out in the snow and buy a copy of Office 2007, download a copy and tie up my pc all day, or do something else.
I've decided to do something else. I'm installing Open Office and will use Outlook express for email (for now).
I'll report back in a week on how Open Office compares.

Tags:Open Office, Microsoft Office 2007

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Microsoft Vista and Blatant Self-Promotion

2007-01-30T06:45:00.000-08:00

Today is the official launch of Microsoft's new Vista operating system. Let me sum up everything I've read about Vista to date: don't bother. Older machines with modest hardware won't run it (and by older I mean anything with less than a gig of ram, so that includes a lot of newer machines), and there's no compelling reason to switch.

So today I was surprised to see a very positive article called "15 reasons to switch to Vista". Then I realized that I was on Microsoft's own msn.com. I'm a little bothered by it, because msn presents itself as a news source. I'm not saying they shouldn't promote it, but I don't like when editorial content and advertising content is mixed. I decided to check out msnbc as well, thinking they might be more objective since they are clearly a news group (even if partly owned by Microsoft). The article there was a little better (listed a few negatives), but overall it was much more positive than anything else I've read in the press. Here are a few quotes:

"If you’re currently using Windows XP, you can’t go wrong with upgrading to Vista... "
Quote goes on to say you need better hardware. Great. Even if that's the case, I do find something wrong with wasting a couple hundred bucks for very little improvement over XP.

"Windows Vista is the latest, most up-to-date and most improved version of the Windows operating system. It will help you get the most from your current computer"
Applications help me get the most from my computer. An operating system is supposed to help me do that with minimal impact to my PC's resources. An OS that needs a minimum of 1GB of ram (likely really 2GB) doesn't have a 'minimal impact'.

"your next computer will have Vista installed on the hard drive. Soon it will be nearly impossible to avoid."
Big Brother is watching you. You will be assimilated!

Listen, I'm not an MS hater. I'm writing this post on an XP machine running IE7 (my other machine runs Linux), but having dealt with operating system changes in the past (as well as having 'fixed' machines running with too little ram) I strongly recommend against getting Vista. Microsoft will force you to change soon enough.

Tags: Microsoft, Vista, msn, msnbc, operating system, linux

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Buy John Elway's Furniture!

2007-01-26T13:30:00.000-08:00

Even though it has nothing to do with online marketing, I have to comment on an ad I heard on sports radio last night.
John Elway has a furniture line at Sam's Club, and they are promoting it with a spot where Mr. Elway thinks they are taking his *actual* furniture. Hilarious (<---- sarcasm!). I fail to see the connection between John Elway and furniture. That got me thinking about why some endorsements are successful and some are not. Here's what I came up with:

- Pick a celebrity where the endorsement makes sense from a product standpoint. Model Kathy Ireland and fashion? Sure. Chuck Norris and fitness equipment? Ok. John Elway and furniture? Uhmm, no.

- Pick a celebrity with magnetic personality. The kind that could sell anything. Works especially well with TV infomercials. George Foreman talking about a food related product. Yes! Yes! John Elway (boring) hawking furniture (boring): No! No! No!

- Pick a celebrity who is hot right now. Think 50 cent and bottled water, J-Lo and just about anything. Elway's heyday was what, ten years ago?

- Pick a celebrity who will appeal to your demographic. Prime example: marketing your Buick to old people? Hire Tiger Woods! Old people love golf, and they love Tiger! (now that I think about it though, Tiger driving a Buick is not very believable. Kind of like him hawking Centrum Silver. Yeah, he's popular, but it's not a great fit).

So where does John Elway and furniture fit into this.
Magnetic personality? Nope.
Hot right now? Nope.
Appeals to demographic? John Elway: appeals mostly to men, especially nostalgic sports fanatics Furniture: primarily women buyers, I would think.

I give this promo a big fat F! ( in case you cared)

Tags: John Elway, furniture, celebrity endorsement

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Google blows up Google Bombs

2007-01-26T10:04:00.000-08:00

Well, it was bound to happen. Google has now fixed the Google Bomb 'problem'. If you don't know what I'm talking about here's the phenomena in a nutshell. In the past, it's been possible to manipulate Google's search results by linking to sites in a particular way. The most famous example was "miserable failure". The first result used to be George Bush's biography on whitehouse.gov. This was accomplished by bloggers/webmasters linking to that page with the words "miserable failure" as the anchor (link) text. This worked up to even a week ago. Do the same search now and you get entirely different results.

There's a good writeup here on what Google may be doing differently. From patent filings, it looks like anchor text that is not related to on-page content is ignored. What this means is link text can still help you rank high but only if it's related to your page. A page about "miserable failure" will still benefit from lots of links using "miserable failure" as the anchor text. Even a page with related terms will benefit, like "profound disappointment". But a page with links that don't match the content (like "miserable failure" and GW's bio) won't rank high.

Based on the past 6 years, one could argue that "miserable failure" and GW are related but in a semantic sense they are not. :)

The Google Bomb used to be my favorite illustration of the power of inbound links for search engine rankings. But in the grand scheme, things haven't really changed. Inbound links with the proper text are still crucial for ranking high.

Let's take a look at the first page for the words "teen driving" (it's a project I'm working on right now for a client). Out of the ten top sites, all TEN of them have at least one link with those words as the anchor text (google allinanchor: teen driving). It's pretty clear even after all the changes Google has made to its algorithm, anchor text is still a dominant factor.

Side note: As of 1/26/07, the "miserable failure" Google Bomb still works on Yahoo and MSN, but they can't be far behind in making their adjustments.

Tags: Google, Google Bomb, Miserable Failure, SEO, George Bush

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Using multiple domains can screw up your search engine rankings

2007-01-25T09:40:00.000-08:00

It is not uncommon for a business to own multiple domain names. If you manage domains for your company, you may own a domain name with multiple extensions (yourdomain.com, yourdomain.info, yourdomain.us, yourdomain.org). Not a bad idea to do this, the cost is minimal and it protects your brand from webmasters who want to "freeload" off your brand name. You may also have domain names that relate to your product. Perhaps your company merged with another and you have multiple domain names (without having separate sites).

Let's assume that you have multiple domain names, but only one site. What are the ways to manage your domain names?
Option 1: Don't put up a site for domains you don't use. In other words, people typing in your domain name will get an error message (or a "parked domain" page)
PROS: Easy to implement
CONS: This only makes sense if you have very little traffic to these domains AND no meaningful links to them

Option 2: Have a site for each domain but with identical content. This is quite common. In this case, yourdomain.com, yourdomain.org, alternatedomain.com and others are all the same site, with the same content. If you visit the site by going to yourdomain.org, any page you visit will be at yourdomain.org. Incidentally, many sites do this inadvertently by allowing visitors to come in through either www.domain.org or just domain.org. Visitors don't make a distinction, but it's technically possible for these two addresses to have completely different content.
PROS: Easy to maintain several brand names and keep them separate in the mind of the customer. Say you have a business that goes by "Jones Florists" in one area and "Smith Florists" in another. You could have both sites have identical content but visitors to the site would never be aware that the other name exists.
CONS: If you care about being ranked in search engines, you should NEVER use this method for two reasons. First, search engines hate sites with duplicate content. Google's webmaster guidelines specifically warn against this. If you have two sites (or even two pages) with identical content, one or both may be delisted or severely deranked. Second, all the major search engines use the quantity and quality of links to your site to determine your ranking. If you've got multiple domain names with the same content, you are splitting your links into several entities. The end result is that (if you avoid the duplicate content penalty) you'll have 3 listings on page 26 of search results when you could have one listing on page one.

Option 3: Ding Ding!! We have a Winner!!! Redirect multiple domains into one. What this means is when you type in one domain, you are automatically taken to another. For an example, visit bghemagine.com and bghstudios.com. These should both take you to a page on www.bghstudios.com, the preferred domain (bghemagine is the old company name).
PROS: Lots! Not getting penalized in the search engines is one. This approach combines all the links into one, i.e. all the links to bghemagine.com help boost the value of www.bghstudios.com, they are essentially transferred. It allows you to get all the traffic from mistyped addresses(for example if you are a .org but people get confused and type in .com). You can also purchase domain names that get direct traffic and redirect them to your site.
CONS: You can't keep two corporate identities separate since the URL in the browser's address bar will only show the main site. If you really need separate identities, have two sites with substantially different content. Even if that means rewriting all your copy.

Conclusion: If you have multiple domains, redirect them all to one (this also goes for www or non-www, pick one and stick with it).

Warning: Nothing's ever simple, is it? Not only do you need to redirect your sites, you need to do it in the right way, using a permanent redirect (aka 301 redirect) done at the server level. Wrong ways include temporary(302) redirects, and any redirect done using code on the page (meta-refresh, javascript). If this is all gibberish to you, google it or get your local geek/programmer/webmaster to do it for you.

Tags: SEO, Domain names

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Flash and Search Engine Optimization

2007-01-22T13:16:00.000-08:00

You've probably heard that Flash and search engine optimization don't mix. Generally, most search engines can't read the contents of a flash file and won't follow links embedded in flash. (note I said generally, I've seen evidence Google can understand *some* flash content). In the past, this has meant applying a few fixes to make flash-heavy sites search friendly. For example, it's advisable to include an alternate path to deeper pages using html links. An example of this can be found at my advertising agency home page. Notice the main navigation is through a flash object, but html links are also provided at the bottom.
What about flash content? Search engines don't understand what a flash video is about, they just know your page includes a flash file. One way around this that *supposedly* works is to include a description in the flash file itself. Apparently, Adobe/Macromedia have a feature that allows you to include this description, although its intent is more for visually-impaired web visitors. The text only appears in text browsers (such as Lynx), which works since search engine 'spiders' are basically text browsers as well. One problem with this approach: I've never seen it done, and haven't yet met a Flash designer who took advantage of this.
So what is the right way to optimize Flash content? I believe I've run into the perfect solution (can't take the credit though, I didn't come up with it). Here's how it works:
- Include alternate content in the HTML for the page
- Use Javascript to check if the browser has a Flash reader (& the right version). If yes, the Flash content is displayed (in place of the html text)
Here's why this works. Search engine spiders don't execute Javascript. Hence, Google will see the HTML text, but a human visitor (the 98% who have Javascript) will see the Flash file.
For an example, check out the Bennett & Bennett website and take a look at the source code. If you didn't have javascript turned on, you'd see the text instead of the flash product animation.

CAUTION: There are other Javascript solutions out there that work the other way around, the default is to display the flash file, but alternate text is displayed instead if the script determines that flash is not available. While this may work for human visitors, this defeats the purpose for search engines. Remember that the search engines don't execute javascript, so they'll never 'see' the alternate text.

TIP: There are text browsers you can download and even use online to simulate how the search engines see your site. Just google "text browser". If you want to do this using Internet Explorer, it's pretty simple. First disable Javascript (tools- security options- custom -disable active scripting). Turning off Flash is a little more difficult, but I installed a free tool that makes it a breeze. It's called FlashSwitch and turns flash on and off with the click of a button

Tags: Flash, SEO, Search Engine Optimization

When to use video on your site

2007-01-17T06:24:00.000-08:00

In what situations is it appropriate to integrate video into your small/medium sized business website? Everybody else is doing it, should you? I'm exagerating of course, large sites are using video but I see very few smaller sites that are more than just text and pictures. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- Do you want your site to say "what you do" or "who you are"?
Compare it to the job application process. A face-to-face interview is always part of it, because a resume or even a phone interview don't convey who you are. If you are a consultant or service provider, showing your "personality" is important. For an example, see the intro video at BGH Studios.
- Does your existing site copy include a lot of "how-to's"?
Phrases like "turn the screw 180 degrees", " pull the blue tab ", are a dead giveaway. Maybe you could just use a video and show how to do it.
- Do you want to emotionally connect with your audience?
Video testimonials can be very powerful because they are more believable, especially if your business deals with an emotional subject: health, relationships, children.

When not to use video:
- when your visitors want a quick answer (absurd illustration: don't use a video to give directions to your office. An address and a link to google maps will suffice!)
- when search engine visibility is important. Search engines can't recognize the content of your videos. You could of course, offer both text and a companion video.

How to do video:
- Professionally produced is best, but in some instances video blog type productions are appropriate. This assumes some basic video skills. There's a fine line between looking 'real and raw' and looking real 'cheesy'.
- Keep it short
- Remember you don't have a captive audience. Pushy sales pitches don't work, they'll just leave your site. Don't feature your CEO bragging about your company and talking about 'paradigm shifts' and other cliches. Keep the BS meter pegged on zero. (if your BS meter is broken, run your script by someone under the age of 25)

Tags: online video, web design

Netflix launches online video service

2007-01-16T07:32:00.000-08:00

Netflix just announced they are launching an online video service (NY times article). They aren't the first (iTunes, Amazon and others were), but I believe they are going to be more significant for one big reason: it's free. Current Netflix subscribers will get up to 18 hrs of free movie downloads (depending on their monthly service package). This will help move 'movie downloading' from an activity that is for 'early adopters' to the mainstream.
I've watched my fair share of online video (mostly TV shows), all of it free. But compared to watching the content on my TV screen, it just doesn't compare. 19 inch screen vs. 60 inch screen. Office chair vs. my couch. No contest.
Now, there are several streaming devices that will allow me to stream video from my PC to my big screen, but I've got to fork over several hundred dollars for them. I just don't watch that much video on my PC for it to be worth it.
So here's why the Netflix announcement is so important: if I were to watch up to 18 hours of video **free** on my PC, I might consider one of these devices. This would improve my online video experience, thereby leading me to use video downloading even more, maybe even paying for it. Netflix has the opportunity to expose millions of new users to movie downloads.

Tags:
Netflix, video download, online video

How to test your site on multiple browsers

2007-01-05T12:56:00.000-08:00

Came across this great blog post on testing your site on multiple browers.
How does your site look to visitors using IE, Firefox, Safari? What about those on XP, Mac, or linux? Diffent screen resolutions? Flash versions (latest is 9, but most people have 7 or 8, some have flash 6 or lower)
Just in case you think this is trivial, I've seen pages that look fine on Firefox completely break in IE7 (as in, shuts down the browser). Not something you want to do to your visitors.
So, check out the info in the link, and give Browser Shots a whirl.

tags: browsers, IE7, web design,

Companies I'm Watching in '07

2007-01-05T08:49:00.000-08:00

I'm taking a little break from e-marketing to talk about technological innovations and companies to watch in '07. Most likely, these are companies you've never heard of.

Company: Tesla Motors
The company has come out with an all-electric roadster that does zero to sixty in 4 seconds, with a range of 250 miles, for $100k. That may sound like a lot, but for a car with this performance, it compares favorably (to, say, a Dodge Viper). This is significant because this is the first time an electric car has compared so well to an equivalent gas-powered vehicle at the same price. Tesla plans to introduce a 5-series type vehicle in a couple years for around 50k, and a third generation family vehicle after that. For these things to happen, significant improvements in battery performance and cost will have to happen.
What to expect from them in '07: I'd be willing to be you will see the Tesla Roadster at many red carpet hollywood events later this year

Company: Firefly Energy
A startup initially funded by Caterpillar, this company is working on building a better lead-acid battery. They claim to be able to produce batteries that perform like lithion-ion but cost about the same as traditional lead-acid (car) batteries. There are about a dozen companies that claim to have a radical new battery, but this one seems very legitimate. They plan on producing batteries for Husvarna (lawn equipment) and the U.S. military next year.
Why they are important: This battery would be a game changer not only for power tools and lawn equipment, but for electric vehicles and/or plug-in hybrids.
What to expect from them in '07: Launch of their product in Husqvarna equipment, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear an announcement of a partnership with an auto manufacturer

Company: Nanosolar
This one you may have heard of, they manufacture thin-film solar cells.
Why they are important: They've built a great product in the lab, now they are scaling up to production. These cells could potentially be 1/10th to 1/5th the price per watt of today's cells
What to expect in '07: They are building an enormous plant. If they can overcome manufacturing challenges at this scale, they'll make a lot of news this year

Company: Voxant
They launched a new product this year called The Newsroom. In a nutshell, any website or blog publisher can syndicate news content for free. As a blogger, not only is it easy to integrate into your site, you also get paid every time somebody views the content (it's ad supported).
They started off a little slow but now they include news stories from AP and Reuters and many small news organizations
Why they are important: The way we get our news has changed radically in the past few years, moving more towards niche sites and blogs. This could be a game changer by allowing virtually anybody to publish "niche news" with high quality, authoritative content while making money.
What to expect in '07: It's a make or break year as they get a critical mass of news sources and individual publishers.

So there you have it, a couple smaller companies that could have a big impact this year.

tags: tesla motors, firefly energy, voxant, the newsroom, nanosolar

E-Marketing trends for 2007

2007-01-02T06:03:00.000-08:00

As we start the New Year off, here are some trends we are likely to see (or I hope we see) in 2007:

- A continued shift out of traditional TV advertising due to DVR usage growth. Much of it will shift to online. Product placement on TV shows will also grow.

- Google will continue to apply their self-serve, auction-based ad model to more and more applications. I would not be surprised to see radio ads be available through an adwords-type system this year

- In exchange for free wireless broadband access, users will be served geographically-targeted ads based on their location

- We might see an ad-supported cellular service

- 2007 will see several online 'TV' networks launched (like Bud.tv).

- Citizen journalism will continue and expand, especially in niche markets. Dedicated, amateur published sites will offer in depth coverage of niche topics (see The Housing Bubble Blog for an example). News syndication services like The Newsroom will facilitate this phenomena. Some publishers will make big money doing this (advertising supported).

Dial-up is dead, long live Broadband!

2006-12-21T11:19:00.000-08:00

A recent survey showed that 3/4 of U.S. households that are on the internet now have broadband access (cable/dsl). That still leaves 25% that don't, so should we still design sites for them in mind?
Numbers can be deceiving. Those 3 out of 4 people on broadband tend to access many more sites and pages, in fact surveys show they view twice as many pages as dial-up users.

I checked the web metrics for sites that my company manages, and these statistics show that only around 10% of visitors are using dial-up.
Unless you are a government entity, a utility or other 'crucial' organization that needs to guarantee access to all, I believe it's time to start designing your site primarily for the broadband visitor. You should have media-rich sites that engage your visitor.

This doesn't mean you can just throw up the latest cutting edge features. Flash is a great example. Only 30% of visitors have Flash 9. About 15% only have Flash 7 or older. If you use Flash, try to use something compatible with Flash 8 at a minimum, but preferably Flash 7.

Also, too much video and rich-media will slow down even a fast connection. Keep in mind that many use wireless networking (with their broadband connection) which is generally slower than a direct broadband connection. Finally, don't use rich media just because you can. Good design principles always apply. Too much motion/animation is just distracting.

Mis-using Adsense

2006-12-20T12:02:00.000-08:00

I've seen several "corporate" sites now that include Adsense. I'm not talking about content sites/online publishers/forums. These are company sites or sites about a particular product.

Here's an example. I found them surfing eBay for car parts. Their claims for their product seem sketchy, but let's put that aside for a second.

Why in the world would you put Adsense on a site like this? The goal of the site is to generate sales of your own products, is it not?

For a company that needs to establish credibility, displaying ads (of any kind, but especially not adsense) is foolish.
On top of that, why would you want to encourage visitors to leave your site.

The Bottom Line: even if you get significant traffic, putting ads on your corporate site or retail site is usually a mistake.

Alexa for Online Marketers

2006-12-18T09:28:00.000-08:00

If you're not familiar with Alexa, here is a primer on what they do and how to use the information they provide

Alexa provides traffic rankings for millions of sites. How do they do this? Millions of internet users around the wolrd have downloaded Alexa's toolbar as a browser add-in. Alexa uses the toolbar to gather information about what sites/pages are being accessed by its toolbar users.
Alexa then ranks the sites based on numbers of visits.

What info Alexa provides:
- Traffic ranking (for example, Google is 3rd), average number of pageviews
- Charts showing historical visit trends
- Daily Reach (out of one million internet visitors, x visited this site)
- Related sites ("People who visited this site also visited these sites")
- Sites Linking in (I prefer using the linkdomain: command on yahoo or msn search)

Limitations:
- Data is based on toolbar users who may have different internet usage behavior than the average user
- Doesn't provide data on # of visits, just reach and ranking. There has been at least one attempt at calculating # of visits based on Ranking. You can find it here.

What I use it for:
- A rough measure of the popularity of a site
- To find related sites. I find the related sites to be the most useful feature. Recently, I was trying to find potential sites for a client to advertise on. I found one quality industry "authority" site and then used Alexa to find other sites that people visited. This resulted in me finding great sites that I would have never been able to find by doing a simple web search. For this reason, I have installed the toolbar on my system and I find I pretty much use it daily.

IE7 Review

2006-12-15T12:17:00.000-08:00

I just made the switch to IE7.
The positives:
- Fresher, cleaner look
- You don't need to use drop down menus as much, but they're still available if you want them
- Tabbed Browsing (Firefox et al. have had this forever)
The negatives:
- not as many plug-ins available as for Firefox
- still has a lot of the same internet explorer bugs. Just yesterday, IE7 wouldn't open a page that works fine in firefox (apparently, IE doesn't like javascript within tables)
- some day very soon we'll find out about some new security flaws
- some reputable sites (like google.com/webmasters) have problems with their security certificate. In IE6, you'd see a popup window warning you. In IE7, you are taken to a warning page first and you have to click through. Annoying.

Overall, it's worth switching if you are already on IE. Otherwise, there's no reason to ditch firefox or opera.

PS: Wondering why a web guy is using a crappy Microsoft product? Because that's what most web viewers use (although firefox is coming on strong), therefore that's what I use to test new pages (especially since my web programmers all use firefox, I'm the only PC/IE guy in our shop). FYI, I use firefox on LINUX at home!
Overall, it's worth switching

I love Google Freebies!

2006-12-14T11:59:00.000-08:00

This past year Google's been really good to e-marketers by providing some free tools that are really, really useful. Here are some of my favorites:

Google Analytics
Server Stats are inaccurate, misleading and fairly useless for marketing purposes. They were after all designed more for webmasters. Page Tagging (using a javascript on each page) is much better technology but until recently was quite expensive. One of the more reasonable options was Urchin, but even their stats package was out of reach for small businesses. Enter Google! Google bought Urchin and has repackaged it as Google Analytics - for free!
I still use server stats if I need to troubleshoot optimization issues, but by and large I use Google Analytics for all my clients. It's got 95% of the features of Webtrends & siteCatalyst. I've used webtrends in the past, but at the 5-6 figure costs, I'd rather my clients spend their money on paid search.

Google Website Optimizer

I'm itching to try this one out! Don't be misled by the title, this has nothing to do with search engine optimization. This is about optimizing your site for visitors (to increase conversion). Again, this tool is free and has pricey alternatives. Basically, by placing javascript on your site, you can rotate various versions of your content. You can (and should) change several variables: placement, copy, offers, images. The different versions of your content are served up randomly to visitors for a preset number of visits. You can then use the analysis tools to determine which combination is the best for your site.

Blogger

Uh... Duh! There's plenty of other free blog hosting services, but I love the ease of use of blogger. I've also noticed that Google indexes my blogger blogs much faster than, say, a new site I put up. This is with very few links coming too. Makes me wonder if Google indexes blogger pages faster. Hmmm..

Future Freebies / Freebies to check out
Haven't yet used Google's spreadsheet application and word processor. Gmail is pretty good. The threading of messages takes a while to get used to. I've had very little spam on my account (as opposed to hotmail/yahoo), but that might be because I'm very careful who I give it to.
A Google exec (I forget who) recently theorized that cell phones may soon be free (ad supported). I do expect a lot more large-area free wi-fi hotspots, and Google is already going at this business pretty hard. Imagine Adsense like ads delivered to your computer based on which wi-fi tower you are accessing. Brilliant! I better go buy some Google stock.

Disclaimer: Don't call me a Google "homer"! There are things I don't like about Google. Like all the made-for-adsense junk sites. A little quality control would be nice.

A little about me

2006-12-14T11:38:00.000-08:00

I work for a marketing agency in Dayton, Ohio. I live in Cincinnati (Who Dey!) with my wife, son and pug.
I attend Liberty Heights Church in Liberty Township. I've been involved in online marketing since 1999, including stints at Procter & Gamble and EIM inc.

What can you expect to find in this blog? A little bit about everything related to online marketing.

Why e-targeting

2006-12-14T11:30:00.000-08:00

well, primarily because all the other good names were taken.. seriously!
ok.., well there's another reason. The term "Marketing" has almost always referred to mass marketing: TV, Radio, Print.
Online Marketing is different. Not only can it be highly targeted, it's also highly measurable. Sadly, I see a lot of the old marketing mindset out there where targeting is barely used and measurement is non-existent. So, e-targeting is the name.

The eMarketing Blog

Two Easy Ways to Improve Your Local Search Results

Make the most out of your error pages

Google adds new features to Sitemaps

Link age and search rankings

So long, Microsoft Office

Microsoft Vista and Blatant Self-Promotion

Buy John Elway's Furniture!

Google blows up Google Bombs

Using multiple domains can screw up your search engine rankings

Flash and Search Engine Optimization

When to use video on your site

Netflix launches online video service

How to test your site on multiple browsers

Companies I'm Watching in '07

E-Marketing trends for 2007

Dial-up is dead, long live Broadband!

Top ten viral videos

Mis-using Adsense

Alexa for Online Marketers

IE7 Review

I love Google Freebies!

A little about me

Why e-targeting