PPC-Advice.com

Just when you thought it was safe to call a truce in the browser wars, Google comes up and hits you in the face with a cream pie.  Sure, you think it’s funny at first and perhaps it tastes pretty good, but it might spell trouble for online marketers.  Find out why Google Chrome, the newest web browser on the scene is causing a stir - good and bad.

Not long ago WebTrends announced the release of their newly re-branded online marketing solution they now dub Ad Director.  After talking with representatives at Search Engine Strategies San Jose, it’s a bit of a departure from the intricately granular management platform Omniture Search Center provides, but might be a welcome change for SEMs looking for a more high-level strategic solution.

Many of us already know, the labor and attention SEO demands can be tough to justify in an organization, especially when advertising budgets for pay-per-click are available and bring instantaneous results.  Many online marketers already make a point to implement site-wide changes with conversion uplifting tricks gleaned from PPC campaigns to other sections or public-facing areas of a site.  What isn’t readily known is whether PPC campaigns can actually help your natural rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPs), until now.

After having the pleasure of using Woopra for the past 24 hours or so, and keeping a watchful (and amazingly addicted eye) on my own blog’s analytics numbers and realtime visitors, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a great start to what will be an amazing tool.  Many other analytics suites such as Webtrends and Omniture claim to have the ability to track users from start to finish, but none of them do it in session-based realtime fashion like Woopra.

The newest - and admittedly the coolest - player in the web analytics market is Woopra.  The fine folks over at iFusion Labs were kind enough to furnish us with a free demo account and we’re all still a bit awestruck.  Woopra has a lot of things going for it from the get-go including sophisticated tracking features and metrics, but possibly the one feature that takes the cake for most interesting is Woopra Live, which streams realtime analytics info to a java client.  C’mon… that’s really cool!

I was holding my opinion these last few days because I was hoping that Search Engine Strategies in San Jose would take a turn for the better.  With attendance up over previous years, and more tracks being added to the mix, organizers seem to have dropped the ball in terms of content and sophistication.  Many visitors I’ve talked to at the show have agreed with me, the sessions are becoming less and less relevant, less and less valuable to attendees, and seems to have lost the advanced tactical focus we’ve all come to enjoy in previous years.

My mind is still spinning from last night’s Google Dance.  For those of you reading this post that didn’t attend SES San Jose or the Google Dance itself, the sheer spectacle of the event was enough to excite even the most introverted of wallflowers to get involved, get up and dance, or strike up a conversation with pretty much anyone.  But for all the glitz and glam that was put on yesterday at the Googleplex, many are calling Google the craziest company to ever exist - I beg to differ, and here’s why.

SES San Jose Day 4 starts out with a bang, with Dan Heath, Author of “Made to Stick” appearing in the morning keynote.  It also seems that as the days progress, the sessions get more and more finely targeted.  Day 4 is no exception, with pretty advanced topics spanning most of the different track disciplines.  Find out what my picks are for Day 4…

If you’re too tired after the Google dance the night before, Day 3 has you covered.  Looks like Kevin Ryan was nice enough to pace everyone in attendance with two coffee breaks wednesday morning, plus a roundtable discussion.  Sessions don’t start until 10:30, so if you sleep in you won’t be sauntering into a smaller conference room.  Good thinking!  Anyways, my predictions for Day 3 at SES San Jose continues…

The anticipation is brewing for Search Engine Strategies in San Jose.  As a rare treat, I’ve been invited to the Googleplex to meet with various business groups and for a campus tour, so I’ll be heading to Silicon Valley a bit early and have to increase the frequency of my SES preview posts.  Day 2 looks like a stunner, so if you’re just going for one day, make day 2 the day you attend.

With Search Engine Strategies days away, I’ll take a look at which sessions are “must-see” in San Jose.  What makes SES in San Jose different is sheer size.  I have yet to see some actual numbers, but the billing will likely live up to the hype.  The show is so big in fact that organizers have crammed 5 sessions per interval, making choosing a session to attend that much more difficult.  Here are our picks…

First and foremost a disclaimer:  In no way was this post sponsored by Experian or Hitwise, it’s merely an opinion piece.  Hitwise (an Experian company) has been around for a while, collecting and analyzing online traffic metrics and offering insights and access to data on a subscription basis.  What makes Hitwise unique is their sample sizes through ISP partnerships and opt-in panels in the millions, which easily dwarfs most of their competitors.  Most larger advertisers and agencies would be wise to get themselves subscriptions, because the data available through Hitwise is second-to-none.

Anyone who’s ever started a campaign using broad match keywords knows the pain of generating useless clicks on irrelevant fringe keyword combinations.  For instance, if you’re targeting a broad match keyword combination like “used car” you don’t necessarily want to get clicks from people searching for “used car salesmen suck”.  But how much is too much when it comes to negative keywords?

The next entry into the search marketing game is CUIL.com that promises to index and organize the greatest amount of pages online - more than Google, and more than Yahoo.  With former Google engineers and executives at the helm, can they possibly eat away at Google’s search dominance?

Google’s had a lid on this one for a while, with an extended beta program launched some time ago, but it looks like the features have finally gone public.  If you’ve ever questioned whether your content network or placement targeted ads found a good home due to poor ROI, it might be time for you to consider targeting keywords on the content network.