March 17, 2005
MSN adCenter Screen Shots
Here is a blog entry that speaks to and shows new screen shots for the just released MSN Search Program.
http://www.searchenginelowdown.com/2005/03/first-screenshots-of-msn-adcenter.html
Posted by james at 10:26 AM | Comments (1374)
March 14, 2005
What SEO firms expect from clients
A great article published recently talked through the process undertaken by SEO (SEM) companies in selecting clients. The step by step process indicated that clients must fulfil certain criteria to be considered a good client. Continue reading "What SEO firms expect from clients"
Posted by james at 10:14 AM | Comments (1141)
February 08, 2005
Search Projections now $13.5bn by 2007
An article in MediaPost has suggested search marekting spend will be above $13.5bn by 2007. This is an interesting statistic and is based upon 4 factors... smaller compaines becoming interested in search, international expansion, local and contextual search and finally the recognition of search as a branding vehicle.
It's an interesting number and there are, in my opinion, two of the three that are major factors. The first is branding and the second is the international expansion. It is clear that from a branding perspective the power of branding via search is important. In the next article I publish on PPCA I'll talk about branding and awareness via search, but interestingly enough it is further backed up by this data. The second area is international expansion, without this the engines will not grow as fast. The international market in some sectors is greatly defined but in others in a fledgling state and as such improvements in international coverage will definately be the key.
The only question that I have relates to availability... How will the engines be able to manage this increased number of smaller advertisers with only a limited amount of screen real estate?
Here is the article: http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_SearchInsider.cfm?fnl=050203
Posted by james at 08:56 AM | Comments (1677)
January 26, 2005
Users Unaware of Paid vs. Free Web Listings
An interesting survey conducted by Excite indicated that only 1 in 6 users can tell the difference between an 'unbaised' free listing and a paid listing.
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050124/D87QEK3O0.html
As much as the terminology doesn't bother me, although the thought that a paid listing could be considered biased instead of more relevant is pretty odd, it is interesting to see that users aren't aware of what they are click on.
This shocks me even further when research conducted on AdWords suggested that a third of visitors clicked on paid and 2/3 clicked on the organic. This would suggest 1 in 3 know the difference.
I personally see there being a number of reasons for this:
1) Google's listings are easier to distinguish between paid and organic
2) As a contrast, Paid Inclusion listings in Yahoo! are identical and paid listings are in a similar format
3) Maybe paid listings are considered more relevant on Google than on the other engines and as such more people click on then than in the other engines?
There could be a large number of reasons for this but it goes to show that as long as the user get's to their desired quarry then what difference does it make to them?
A question to all is, do the search engines want people to know or not and would people click differently if they did know?
J.
Posted by james at 01:48 PM | Comments (2366)
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