• Quick Start Guide for Google Website Optimizer
  Nice jump start guide from Google on the website optimizer.
  (tags: google+websiteoptimizer)
• 26 Free Tools for Buzz Monitoring
  (tags: buzz+marketing reputation+management)

• Web Analytics Association – Analytics Standards
  Warning: PDF. The WAA’s defination and comments on 26 standard web analytics definitions.
  (tags: web+analytics)

• Ad Trafic Quality Resource Center
  Google’s information about click fraud (invalid clicks).
  (tags: click+fraud)
• Yahoo! Refreshes, Redesigns Local « Screenwerk
  Nice writeup by Greg on the new Y! Local redesign.
  (tags: yahoo+local)
• Online Publishers Association: Press Releases
  August 13, 2007
  WEB USERS NOW SPEND HALF THEIR TIME VISITING CONTENT, FAR OUTPACING TIME SPENT WITH SEARCH, COMMUNICATIONS AND COMMERCE.
  (tags: media+consumption)
• GA-Experts » Blog Archive » How to Get Detailed PPC Keyword Data from Google Analytics
  (tags: google+analytics)
• Web 2.0 List Of Web 2.0 Application Links
  (tags: web2.0)

Google Trends is now updated daily.

In addition, Google made some changes to their traffic estimator tool to update that data more frequently, and give more accurate projection data.

• ROI -These bidders know their profit by keyword (or ad group) and only bid to make a profit. They would rather a keyword not show, then show in an unprofitable position.

• Brand Protection – These bidders want their brand in the top spot whenever a consumer searches for their brand. In fact, it’s common for these bidding to use position preference so their ad doesn’t show if it won’t be in the number one position.

• Ego Bidders – The CEO wants the company to be number one. It’s pretty easy to manage these accounts – just keep raising your bid until your in the top spot. When you run out of money – ask the CEO for more.

• Real Estate Buyers – These advertisers want to ‘lock up’ search results so their competition isn’t there. While this is a variation of ego bidders, there is at least a reason for being number one.

• Traffic Moguls – I want more traffic, and then some more, and then…. These advertisers are often publishers. AdWords budget optimizer often works well. It’s not the keyword that matters, its the searcher they want.

• Product Awareness Creators – these advertisers are in a difficult position. Product launches are difficult on the web for search as there’s not search volume yet. Success is often measured by an increase in search volume.

• My business exists – These advertisers have a business, want consumers to know about it, and often have a hard time measuring results for a large variety of reasons. However, search advertising works because someone is looking for your keywords, therefore, even without being sophisticated, these businesses can see a nice lift from PPC advertising.

• I want to be an ROI advertiser, but I can’t measure results. This is a very common advertiser. A business who is trying to correlate phone calls, coupons, or an increase in revenue due to online advertising. Often B2B companies with long sales cycles, or sales cycles that are driven by awareness, phone calls, in-store visits, etc. They often fall between ROI and awareness advertisers.

Which one of these are you?

In addition to speaking at SES on Creating Compelling Ads, I will also be speaking on ‘Ads in a Quality Score World‘.

I’ll be focusing on Google’s complex quality score formula. As the information is reviewed by Google for the AdWords Seminars, its as close to official as you’ll often see on the web by any non-Google employee.

If you’d like to dig more into how quality score works, there’s also a series of blog posts on the AdWords Quality Score Factors.

• Geolocation: Core To The Local Space And Key To Click-Fraud Detection
  (tags: local+data)

• adCenter Blog: Hey, good looking! How to write beautiful adCenter ads…
  Good article on MSN adCenter blog about creating nice ads.
  (tags: adcenter)
• Online Marketing from Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture) – Traffic Quality Center
  Yahoo Search Marketing launches a traffic quality center.
  (tags: ysm click+fraud)
• Shoppers Research Online, Buy Locally; Still Rely on Yellow Pages – Marketing Charts
  (tags: local+data)
• i-com – Coupon Redemption Myths
  ICOM busts traditional coupon myths by researching their own 20 year database of coupon info.
  (tags: coupon)
• Inside AdWords: Upcoming change to the top ad placement formula
  Change to ‘premium listings’ adwords algo.
  (tags: adwords)

My latest article: Combat Click Fraud By Blocking Low Quality Traffic was published at Search Engine Land today.

Learn:

• How to block your ads from showing in certain countries
• How to block competitors from clicking on your ads
• See which content network sites are sending you traffic
• How to keep yourself from showing for keyword searches
• How to block content network sites
• Determine how many clicks you did not pay for
• Next steps…

It’s a bit of a follow-up to Content Network Optimization; but instead of focusing on how to optimize for the content network – it’s more about how to block low quality traffic (search and contextual) from the search engines.

enjoy.

The Google Local Business Referral program has been commented about heavily in the last 24 hours.

I’ve known about this program for a while, and being heavily involved in local search, I think it’s being severely misunderstood. It’s not about a sales force – it’s about local business content and customer awareness.

One of the challenges about local search is up-to-date accurate content.

I was asked at Search Engine Strategies San Jose last year: “What do you think the tipping point is for local search?”. Some of the answers were around having 1 million listings, others were about how many advertisers Google had, my answer was, and remains the same:

The tipping point of local search is all about the quantity and integrity of data. The day I can go to a local search engine and receive information that’s as accurate, as fast, and more useful than opening the Yellow Pages, is the day local search will have truly arrived.

Google is targeting college students with this initiative, not sales reps.

The second challenge in online advertising is customer awareness.

If you ask the companies why they are not advertising on the web, the most common answer is ‘We don’t trust it’. However, trust is usually a cover for some other issue. If you follow-up that question with ‘Why don’t you trust it?’. The most common answer is:

We don’t understand it.

It’s not about trust, it’s not about awareness and understanding.

If you look at the typical buying cycle – the very first stage is awareness.

In fact, I believe so much in the fact that awareness plays a critical role in online advertising, that I’m speaking at an RHD Seminar, ‘Introduction to the Web‘ seminar this Thursday (which Yahoo is attending and giving a fun Swag Quiz Presentation afterwards); and then following it with another Awareness Seminar in Vegas later this year.

Collect the Content – Raise the Awareness – Local Search will Arrive

Consumers still have challenges with local search. Often numbers are outdated, the listings are inaccurate, or the listings don’t exist for a business.

To layer on top of that the difficulty for a business to actually give their information to every local search engine. Business’s don’t know, and don’t have the time to submit a Google, Yahoo, Superpages, Yelp, Truelocal, Local.com, Switchboard, etc, etc listing.

There is a reason why programs such as Register Local exist. Register Local is a single point of data distribution for local businesses. Submit it once – view it everywhere.

Local search will arrive someday. However, it will take feet-on-the-street sales reps, content collection programs, and awareness raising for both businesses and consumers for that day to arrive.