Archive for the ‘Search Engine Marketing’ Category
CNN Polls Website Visitors On Their Search Engine
I have been visiting CNN’s website for years. Rarely do I pay much attention to their polls, but today their poll catch my eye. The poll questions was “Which search engine do you use?” and the answer was Google. No surprise there for many of us, although I was surprised by how low Bing really was on the usage chart.
As of this posting, 198,584 people voted and their results are fairly close to what we see on other websites and analyst reports.
Website Usage Results
Search Engine Percentage Votes
Google 85% 168,166
Yahoo 8% 15,687
Bing 4% 8,419
Other 3% 6,312
CNN’s poll clearly shows that the website readers use Google more than any other search engine. While Fox News may find a bit different results, I doubt it would stray very far from that of CNN’s. Google is by far the major player in search and none of us can dispute this dominance. It makes you wonder what Yahoo and Bing will or even can do to make the battle a little closer.
July brings a Boohoo for Yahoo and Pal Bing
Search volume inched up from June to July, but this change didn’t benefit everyone. Both Yahoo and Bing lost paid referral traffic in July, while Google rose slightly.
After all the fanfare and money Microsoft threw on Bing’s arrival, the search engine gossip and hall chatter only lasted for a short time. The newness factor appears to be disappearing. This Internet marketer projected this, as I felt Bing was a complete bust. And while I do like Yahoo better than Bing, I still cannot see how either company is going to catch rival Google.
I would like to say the pay-per-click numbers are clear on who will be the ultimate search engine winner, but I cannot do so with the increased in AOL’s paid search usage. While AOL’s organic search stayed constant, its paid search rose almost 5%. I cannot begin to image who these advertisers might be, although my gut would tell me they are new affiliate marketers who are simply going for the lowest PPC costs.
Regardless of my personal opinion, I wonder what will happen as we move closer to the Christmas holiday season and an improved economy. Americans have been locked down on spending for quit some time and I believe we are going to see some explosive search volumes and online shopping in just a few short months. This however, is a whole other conversation!
Source: Image and search volume provided by Compete.
Bing, Bologna, or Just Bad?
Microsoft recently released a new search engine called Bing. This search engine is supposed to go head to head with Google, although in my opinion, this Bing vs. Google war is not much of a war at all. While Bing and Yahoo may be able to fight the good fight against each other, Bing is in no position to take on the well known behemoth Google.
Google regularly amasses between 70-80% of search volume, which leaves little marketing and advertising dollars for those “other” search engines to vie for and actually obtain. Those who know Microsoft, know Microsoft has the funds and marketing knowledge to bring fast and furious attention to Bing. But does Bing have the strength to continue the current excitement? This Internet marketer says no, no way, and even no way Jose. There isn’t much meat to Bing and I fail to believe there is enough to keep visitors excited and to keep them coming back.
When Microsoft’s marketing campaign runs its course and the hype dies down, Bing will be no more than a memory and a lot of money spent by Microsoft. Google will still dominate the search engine market and Internet marketers like myself will still look to Google to set the stage for future search engine development and Internet marketing best practices.
If Search Engine Optimization is Important, Just Start Wagging Your Tail
If search engine marketing and optimization is important and fast results are a requirement, long tail keywords are a critical element to driving increased traffic to your website. What are long term keywords? They are very focus keywords or phrases that are highly targeted to your target market or product and service offering. The downside is these phrases is that while being very targeted, the also offer lower overall visitor traffic. This inherent negative is quickly replaced by the extremely focused website visitors that do find your site.
I will use my husband to illustrate this example. He is an avid deer hunter. If you target “deer hunting” as your keyword phrase, you might eventually get my husband to your website. You will have to fight for his attention because this phrase is both general and very generic. Now say you are a small business owner that offers guided whitetail deer hunts in Kansas. My husband would search on just that phrase if he wanted to find a guided deer hunt in Kansas. What phrase you ask? The one that just described your business. If the guide set up a website page that focused on the discussion of “guided hunts in Kansas” and mentions “whitetail deer”, my husband will quickly find his way to the website.Does this matter? Yes. He may search the Internet randomly for guided hunts. When he gets focused on actually taking one, he will quickly start to narrow his search to more specifics keywords and phrases. If you catch him in his pursuit for an adventure, you will convert him from wondering website traffic to an actual sale. He utlizes the Internet to search for hunts for years and will continue to do so. One of his biggest complaints, knowing I am his wife, is that many guides do not understand search engine optimization and have no idea what the ancronym SEO means. According to my husband, these guides would be “so much easier to find” and his website searches would take much less time. Should they know about SEO and internet marketing? No and I do not need to know anything about running a small business that performs hunting guides. That being said, if the guide does want to obtain new clients through the Internet, the website does need to be optimized properly and a Internet marketing consultant can help.
The important point to make is that you do not base your entire search engine optimization efforts on long tail search terms or phrases. You need to think about what your visitors will search for when seeking your product or service offering and the create a balance between both generic terms and highly focused terms.
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