It's not often that Google introduces big changes to their search technology.  Sure, they roll out subtle tweaks and enhancements here and there, but the underbelly of the Google search monster remains relatively constant.  Until now. 

Google Caffeine was announced last year and is finally making it's way out of beta and into the Google indexing system. In summary, Google Caffeine is going to be a more frequent and faster way of indexing web content, ensuring that search queries return the most recent and relevant information on the web.  Currently, Google crawls the web in a sporadic fashion, dumping indexed content into a directory and returning those directory results when a search is performed.  Thus, it is possible for some content to wait days, weeks, and even months to get indexed (depending on the SEO efforts and a variety of other factors).  Google Caffeine - among other things - seeks to reduce that lag by continuously crawling the web and indexing content faster than even before.  And as the social web continues to grow, this will be critical in ensuring search relevancy. Love it.

Search marketing remains one of the most effective online marketing tools for driving qualified and traffic to a site. Don't worry social media, you still have your place. But while social may be the chrome rims and satellite radio of online marketing, search remains the engine. 

An effective search strategy starts with solid keyword glossary.  More than just some random terms, a keyword glossary is a thought-out and strategically developed list of key terms and phrases that will bring the most effective - and profitable - traffic to a site.  The terms may be highly competitive, but not always.  They could be long tail phrases, or possibly one word terms.  And more often than not, there are terms that the client would never even consider for search but effective research shows should be pursued.  Collectively, these terms come together to form a keyword glossary of tiered importance to your search marketing efforts.  They become the cornerstone not only for your search marketing effort, but for content development, blogging, and even offline content creation. They become words that your business owns and ideally, that ownership begins to show in the SERPs.

Whether you have a search marketing initiative underway or not, start working on your keyword glossary now. It's a good exercise in order to help develop a common language within your organization around your products and services.  In the end, a properly crafted keyword glossary will help your organization reach consensus around those term/phrases that can have a measurable impact on your bottom line.

SEO ≠ SEM

PPC ≠ SEM

SEO + PPC = SEM

This past week, Google set the search and social media world abuzz with the launch of real time search results.  In a nutshell, real time search provides streaming data on Google's first search engine results page (SERP) that displays as it happens - everything from tweets to RSS content from blogs and news sites. 

As an example, let's say you do a search for "bcs bowl".  You are now going to see something like this on the first SERP in Google.

The highlighted area feeds in the applicable results as they happen, beginning the minute the SERP loads. This certainly puts an interesting spin on search, but in it's current state, is not as big of a game changer as some may think.  Here's why:

1. The current space allocation to real time search content on the first SERP is minimal and is still overshadowed by the news, paid, and organic results.
2. Google has expanded the length of the first SERP to accommodate for the real-time results.  Thus, there are still 10 organic results on page one.  Had they decided to keep the first SERP the same length and reduce the number of organic results to accommodate, that would have been a big deal (and would have ticked a lot of people off - namely, those who were placing #8 - #10 for the term in question)
3. The real-time results are a "flash in the pan" as they scroll in real-time.  Depending on how hot the term being searched, those real-time results will have only a moment of glory (e.g. Tiger Woods, Twilight, etc.).  There is, however, an embedded scroll bar to let you peruse the real-time results that have rolled in since the SERP was loaded.  And one must assume Google has safeguards in place to prevent a Skittles type of fiasco.
4. Real-time search will be important for news, celebrities, sports, and other popular and high-interest queries.  However, people looking for a "minneapolis dentist" or "jeep commander seat covers" will still rely almost exclusively on the paid/organic listings due to the lack of real-time content around these longer tail phrases.
5. While there is merit to seeing real-time results from news sources, I fail to see the value integrating Twitter streams matching search queries into the results.  It seems to add spam/clutter on an otherwise squeaky clean Google SERP.  For all the talk of Google keeping it simple, it is possible that Bing is forcing them to succumb to feature creep with Bing-like features.

That being said, all of the points above are based on the way Google has chosen to treat real-time search right now. Should they make changes (e.g. more real-time search real estate on the SERP, "archived" real-time results that shows info prior to your query, the ability to toggle tweets on/off, etc.), it will be an entirely different game.  For now, real-time search is something to keep an eye on as social content becomes more and more prevalent.

Marketers can sometimes get caught up in online marketing metrics that really don't mean a darn.  Twitter followers, email list size, "website hits", and first page ranking on Google don't mean much unless there is some context around them.  Here are five metrics all marketing professionals should use in order to show real value to their online efforts.  They are also metrics that your C-suite executives will understand and appreciate as you continue to grow your digital marketing strategy.

1. Email open rate.
If your list size is 5,000 people deep but your open rate is only 4%, you're email strategy is not working.  What are those other 4,800 people doing with your message?  Are they even getting it?  Too often, we see email lists being pounded with little-to-no follow-up measurement being performed.  While growing and utilizing the list is important, making sure the people on the list engage with the medium is the whole point of an email program.  And that all starts with an open.

2. Website unique visits.
I once heard a speaker say that "hits" stands for How Idiots Track Success.  That's a bit snarky, but it's quite true.  Usually when people are about talking hits they are meaning visits.  And even more valuable are unique visits, or, the number of different people coming to a site.  If you own a candy shop and the same kid comes in and out 50 times in a single day, he's really only one customer. Same with website visits.  You want to know how many different people your online message is reaching.

3. Twitter retweets.
Followers are great, but there are numerous ways to grow your Twitter follower base with "crap follows".  However, when your message gets retweeted, that's essentially someone else giving you kudos to your messaging...so much so that they are willing to share your message with their followers.  When you think about it, it's word of mouth in the most basic sense.  Strive for retweetable content and use a tool like Retweetist to track your efforts.

4. PPC conversion rates.
The power of online marketing - and specifically, paid search - is that it is extremely trackable.  Conversion rates that are assigned a dollar value can give you real and actionable data regarding the performance of your PPC efforts.  Without a conversion tracking metric, you are simply pushing traffic to a site with no real way to measure value. Failing to show an ROI is what can get us marketing people into trouble with the beancounters.

5. Key organic search rankings.
Note the word "key".  Too often, organizations optimize for terms that they feel are business drivers, when in fact their analytics show otherwise.  Yes, it's great to rank first page for "south dakota used ford car dealers" but those aren't the queries that drive traffic.  It's important to develop a keyword glossary based on keyword effectiveness index (KEI) scores and other key factors and then use that glossary as your optimization focus.

There are obviously many more important metrics for marketers to watch, but these are a few of the key drivers in search, web, email, and social that can help show the impact your online efforts are having.  Don't agree with these top five?  Let us know what you think.

We've been elbows deep in paid search projects lately - some that we've setup from scratch, others that we've inherited.  Paid search is a great medium for those who love numbers and stats.  Being able to track users from first click through conversion and backing out an ROI causes us to geek out a bit.  Here are the top five pitfalls we typically see relating to paid search that causes what could be a great campaign to sputter along in mediocrity.

1. Poor ad group setup
   Dumping keywords into a single ad group and not optimizing ad groups properly can cause quality scores to wane and CPC's to grow.
   
2. Too narrow of a keyword list
   Throw the net out wide and see how many fish you can pull in the boat.  Too many campaigns target too tightly and end up missing some low-hanging fruit.
   
3. No A/B testing of ads
   No brainer, right?  Use a champion/challenger approach and make sure you know what terms and copy are resonating with your audience.
   
4. Landing pages lacking clear calls to action
   Assume your users are idiots.  Place a huge and easy to recognize call to action right in front of them and don't make them work for it.  Keep is simple.
   
5. Haphazard bidding practices
   Blanket bidding across all phrases or overbidding on poor converting phrases can quickly zap a budget. 

There's obviously more to it that this, but these are a few of the more common mistakes that can cause your paid search campaign to live in mediocrity.  If you have a poor performing campaign, give us a shout and we'll help bring it from good to great.  Or bad to great.  Hopefully not great to bad, though.

Before I rushed to any snap judgment on Bing - Microsoft's newly unveiled search engine - I wanted to give it a fair shake and use it for a few weeks in order to render a fair verdict.  While it's difficult not to compare every aspect of Bing to Google, the reality of the search world is that Google is the benchmark by which all engines shall be judged.  That being said, here are a few of the Bing highlights (and lowlights) after spending a bit of time using it over the past month.

Let's start with the biggie - the results. The results are solid....and fast.  I think their algorithms and "decision engine" lingo they are touting in their marketing are holding true.  Point in case, a vanity search for my name "paul ten haken".  Bing's first page includes my LinkedIn, Twitter, and Digg profiles, some news mentions, an old blog I used to author - all very relevant info to the search string.  For Google, I get some of the same but a Classmates, Twitterholic, and Twellow entry make their way to the top 10.  Enough with the stinkin' Twitter apps! And Classmates? Haven't done a thing there since 2002. Still top 10? C'mon.

Bing image search rocks. Nuff said. The endless scrolling, the sorting options, the rollover effects.  Image search is fun again.  Google, by comparison, continues to avoid the pagination issue and makes users click through page after page versus allowing for a much higher number on a single screen. 

The interface. The look and feel of the Bing results page feels very Googleish.  The Bing.com main page usually has a nice, shiny photo that capitvates the viewer...at least those like me that appreciate a nice, high res image. There is something to be said about Google's minimalistic start page, but the Bing imagery is refreshing.  And as a 100% Dutchman, I continue to see pictures of windmills, Amsterdam, and other Dutch nostalgia.  Coincidence or freaky hertiage image targeting?  The related searches and search history on the left are also handy, whereas Google buries related searches at the bottom of the screen.

The buzz. Yes, this isn't exactly a feature of Bing. But the rollout of Bing has been a success thus far, from the outstanding TV spots ("search is sick, Bing is the cure") to the mostly postive Tweets flying around from a typically critical Twitterverse. 

Overall. There's a lot more to be said about Bing. Overall, the engine is great and certainly is giving the Google execs a reason to be bit nervous. They obviously have a big hill to climb (as of last week, Bing owned about 5% ot total search volume). Will I depart from my Google loyalty? Maybe. Is Microsoft on the right track to getting me there? Absolutely. 

SEM = search engine marketing.  SEM encompasses both SEO and paid search.

SERP = search engine results page.

PPC = pay-per-click.  Otherwise called paid search.

SEO = search engine optimization.  SEO focuses on the organic, or unpaid, listings that appear naturally on a SERP.

ROFL = rolling on floor laughing.  What you should do when the Yellow Pages promises you "top organic placement in all major search engines."

The online marketing world is fast being overrun by the social media bull. It has become the shiny nickel that has marketers in almost every vertical sitting up, taking notice, and attempting to figure out a strategy to engage.  But in doing so, companies need to be careful not to take their focus off the other online marketing strategies that are so critical to a comprehensive plan - many of which can show a highly successful ROI if implemented correctly. 

I'm as big of a social media evangelist as any, but I am seeing a trend where more and more organizations are over shifting their focus on social media at the expense of other online marketing tactics.  If you feel that shift happening in your organization, make sure to maintain a balanced approach to SEM, email, blogging, SMS and the like.  When all these pistons are pumping together, it can be a beautiful thing.