The Top 400?

I am all for inclusiveness, but are there really 400 blogs on the subject of search engine marketing that matter?

I guess the fact that they assembled such a large list speaks volumes about how important search engine marketing is.  Think about the number of variations on the theme: search engine optimization, search engine submission engines, algorithm theories, conspiracy theories, black hat techniques, linking strategies, link exchanges, keywords, keyword stuffing, anchor text, paid inclusion, social media, arbitrage, contextual copy writing, brand infringement, page rank, link bait, PPC, Twitter, blogs, podcasts.  Not to mention the whole subject of the search engines themselves: Google, Yahoo, MSN, Live, Ask and so on.

So while 400 is still a daunting number, I appreciate the folks at TopRank for finding the 400 they think will help us all be smarter about our business.  And for saving us all the time sift through 108 million results.

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Google Analytics provides actionable insight into how to optimize websites, online campaigns, and even offline marketing efforts.  It is a sophisticated yet easy to use application which will help you determine which marketing initiatives are driving the most valuable traffic to your site and how best to convert those visitors once they are there.  It integrates with AdWords, giving you atomic level detail on which keywords are most profitable or driving the desired action.

With Google Analytics, you can:

• Compute ROI on your marketing campaigns
• Customize reports and schedule distribution to your colleagues
• Develop strategies for ad campaigns, website initiatives, merchandising and e-commerce,
• Discover which customer segments are most valuable
• Drill – get curious about whats going on with your traffic

The package is a breeze to install – you just paste the Google Analytics tracking code into each of your web site pages and begin tracking immediately.   You can track and compare all your ads, email newsletters, affiliate campaigns, referrals, paid links and keywords on Google and the other engines.  Tracking referrals gives you insight into your social media, article distribution, and link building SEO initiatives by showing you where the traffic is coming from.

The e-commerce tracking allows you to track transactions to a campaign and keyword, by traffic source.  It will tell you the value of each visit in actual dollars for any time period you choose to measure, or compare one time period to another.  You also get sophisticated funnel visualizations to see which pages result in lost conversion, and a site overlay which shows traffic and conversion information for every link on your site.  All for free.

Lastly, Google has included the ability to drive “experiments” to see how different landing pages will perform in your conversion funnel.  Experiments can range from simple A/B tests to sophisticated multi-variate tests.   I used to pay thousands of dollars for a single multi-variate test and it took tons of marketing and engineering resources to implement the test.  Now I can do it for free, and it’s not that hard to implement.  Cool!

Click here to check it out at the Google Analytics home page.

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Google Product Search (you may remember this as “Froogle”) helps shoppers find and buy products from merchants across the web.  When you list your products in Product Search, shoppers can quickly and easily find your site, delivering you more traffic and helping you to increase sales.  And if you accept Google Checkout for payment, the Checkout badge will appear on your Product Search listings, driving even more traffic and confident shoppers to your site.

Listing your products in Product Search is completely free, with no set up or hidden costs.  Because Product Search delivers unbiased and objective search results the same way Google Search does, the ranking is based solely on the quality and relevance of your product listings.

One really nice feature is the ability to upload your product catalog in bulk via XML feed.  Several shopping carts support Google Product Search and will generate your feed and upload it with just a few clicks.  You can update the feed as often as you like, but you must maintain it monthly as all listings expire after 31 days.  See my reviews on the  GoDaddy Quick Shopping Cart and Volusion’s e-commerce platforms as both of these make it easy to use Google Product Search.

One shortcoming is the confusing number of names that Google uses for these products.  “Base”, “Product Search”, “Shopping”, “Checkout” all are part of the same set of tools you will need to work with.  I think someone there could simplify the naming conventions for dumb marketing guys like me.  Drive more clicks for free at http://base.google.com/base/help/sellongoogle.html.

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Google Checkout is a payment process which integrates with your AdWords campaign and your website, allowing your customers to buy from you quickly and securely using a single username and password.  Once they use Google Checkout, the system processes their payment and their order  in conjunction with your shopping cart.

If you already offer Pay Pal, it makes sense to add Google Checkout as an option for your customers.

Google Checkout lets users use their stored information on Google to make their purchase – they just need to type in their username and password.  This convenience reduces shopping cart abandonment, and can increase your sales.  Click here to see the Google Checkout Tour.

AdWords advertisers who offer Google Checkout can place the Google Checkout badge in their AdWords ads.   The small Google Checkout icon sits to the side or underneath your AdWords listing (and your Google Product Search feed listing) which differentiates your ad from those without the badge.  Google studies show a higher click thru rate and user trust on ads which display the Google Checkout icon.  Best of all, your AdWords spend counts to offset the merchant service fee that would normally be charged.  In fact , Google will match your AdWords spend by 10 to 1 –  so if you spend $100 on AdWords, Google will waive up to $1,000 in merchant services fees for all purchases using Google Checkout during that month.

In my experience, Google Checkout is not as widely accepted as PayPal, but that will change overtime.  If you’re going to sell on line, its better to have more ways for your customers to pay.  As an example, you can see how it’s integrated by adding an item into this Volusion Shopping Cart.

So, to review: you can get more clicks, more sales, less expense with Google Checkout.  What’s not to like?

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Google Trends lets you see who is interested in any given  topic, on a local or worldwide basis.  You can enter up to five topics and see how often they’ve been searched on Google over time.  Google Trends also shows how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories and in which geographic regions people have searched for them the most.

To use Google Trends, type in the terms you want to explore and click “search trends”.  Trends can also compare search volume between up to five different topics.  To compare terms, separate each term with a comma.  The graphic results will show you the relative performance of one term to another. To see numeric results, you have to log in with your Google password (very clever of these Google guys).

The results will provide you a  color coded legend, trend line, list of news stories tied to the trend line so you can see the impact of relevant news (great for measuring the impact of PR on search volumes), and the top geographies searching for the terms based on your selection.  the first term you  enter is set so that its average search traffic in the chosen time period is equal to  1.0; subsequent terms are then scaled relative to that first term. You can also choose the length of the time line ranging from the past 30 days to all the way back to 2004..

I find the tool useful for many applications – comparing interest in products, seeing the impact of news or offline advertising on search volumes, geo-targeting AdWords or other advertising initiatives, monitoring competitors and so on.  Best of all, it’s free.

Check it out at http://trends.google.com

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Remember the days when anyone could register a URL for a large brand name like Coca-Cola? That same phenomenon exists today with social media log-ins and fan pages. Tip number Two on the list tells you how to quickly check the availability of your brand name, or proposed alias.

Ever wondered which companies are really doing blogs, social networks, online video, podcasting, widgets, crowdsourcing, microblogging, photo sharing, virtual worlds, wikis, blogger relations, social bookmarking, social news, brand monitoring, discussion boards, social PR and user ratings/reviews? Tip number 4 takes you to 237 examples of who is doing what.

Ok, so here is the link – remember it only takes one great idea to launch a fantastic new campaign. http://www.toprankblog.com/2008/10/link-post-100708/

Enjoy!

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SearchMe Interface

Visually it is really compelling. Better yet is the ability to create “stacks” of the results you found which can then be shared, creating a viral element to the search results.

So how do they monetize the search if there are no traditional “sponsored links” like we know from AdWords? SearchMe will begin embedding brand advertising within the search experience. So as you flip through the results, relevant landing pages will be mixed into the experience giving marketers a much more rich experience to present their product as compared to 136 characters of text.

This could be a game changer. Where Google captured the direct response budgets of advertisers, SearchMe allows a branded experience and will bring “brand” dollars into search.

Your thoughts?

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