Ads Next™ Local Internet Advertising, Annapolis, Maryland, Internet Advertising Solutions, Search Engine Optimization, Website Design and Integration, Social Media Marketing

By MG Siegler

Today, at its Search Event in Mountain View, Google Fellow Amit Singhal (who recently participated in our Realtime Crunchup) took the stage to announce a big new feature for the search giant: Realtime.

“It’s Google’s relevance technology meeting the realtime web,” is how Singhal described it.

As we’ve learned over the past several months with Twitter Search, relevancy is perhaps the key to making realtime search a pillar of the web. Google seems to believe it has cracked the code for this, and has been internally testing it for a while now. But starting today it’s going live for everyone.

Singhal showed off the new feature by doing a query for “Obama.” The results page shows results coming in in realtime. And yes, it works with Twitter. For example, Google’s Matt Cutts tweeted something from the audience, and in popped in the results immediately. This is the first time any search engine has integrated realtime results into a standard page, Google says. Obviously, this is huge. Read More

By John Gaffney

Consolidation. Excitement. Game-changer. Dominance. Welcome to the Google-ized world of mobile advertising. As the rest of the world was watching the company’s expected court filing on its digital book case, Google stepped out and bought AdMob for $750 million in stock. In the process, the landscape for mobile marketing is different than the one that existed Monday morning.

“This is the kind of game-changing event I’ve been predicting for more than a year,” says Jordan Greene, principal of mobile advisory firm Mella Media. “The entry of Google in a dramatic fashion makes this a whole different ecosphere.”

The details: Google buys AdMob for $750 million in stock. According to Google, the company is getting AdMob at a critical early stage of its growth, after it has proven its viability and customer base. “Mobile advertising has enormous potential as a marketing medium and while this industry is still in the early stages of development, AdMob has already made exceptional progress in a very short time,” said Susan Wojcicki, Vice President of Product Management at Google. AdMob stakeholders get a considerable payday from a company that could have become a fierce competitor within a year or less. “Our goal all along at AdMob has been to make it possible for developers and publishers to bring their products and ideas to mobile with the same business model,” said Omar Hamoui, Founder and CEO of AdMob. “We’re proud of the progress we’ve made towards accomplishing this goal, and joining Google will only accelerate this process, ultimately leading to very real benefits for end users around the world. As publishers and developers generate more revenue from their mobile products, they will invest more, and their mobile offerings will become richer, more creative and more robust.”

The Google statement used the word “ecosystem” frequently. “The deal will help Google in its efforts to develop more effective tools for creating, serving and analyzing emerging mobile ads formats. As this ecosystem continues to grow, the company expects these new marketing media,” it said. It promised the new venture would help advertisers engage mobile users with AdMob’s ad formats, help publishers and developers monetize their content more effectively, and help users will see more relevant ads and ultimately get access to more ad-supported content and applications – improving their mobile experience.

Greene and other experts brought up several short-term ramifications of the deal. First and foremost, it creates a new 800 pound gorilla on the mobile ad block. That’s undeniable and changes the ad pitch of every other company in this space immediately. The other point mentioned frequently is viability. Greene believes some brands that were on the fence about mobile ads and budgets might be more comfortable ramping up now that Google is pushing the market.

“The announcement is causing tremendous excitement as it validates the enormous potential of mobile advertising. We predicted consolidation in the industry and Admob’s broad high volume business model is highly synergistic for Google. The industry front runner will be determined by who can deliver the most advanced targeting capabilities for better ROI for advertisers and publishers,” said Paran Johar, CMO of Jumptap, which will now have to compete with the AdMob/Google combination.

Here are some quick stats about facebook that should be interesting to business owners.

o Last month Facebook hit 300 million users
o An average of 250,000 new users join everyday
o About 34% work as professionals, sales, executives, educators or are in technical careers.
o The fastest growing demographic on Facebook consists of users 25 and older

If you decide to build a Facebook page for your business here are some tips that are important for establishing your Facebook presence.

Create a profile that is interesting

Upload a lot of photos.  Photos help fans connect with your company on an emotional level.  Your pictures can include your logo, pictures of your best selling products, company events, ads, employees, and etc.

Make sure your business description is unique and compelling.  A dull description may not appeal to many fans.  Stand out above your competition and other businesses.  Intrigue potential fans to want to become a fan of your business.

Add links, videos, and notes pages.  The more information you have listed the more appealing you will be to your fans and will increase the interaction on your page.

Continue to grow your fan base

You can start by befriending  people you know.  But keep these friends professional since this facebook page directly relates to your business.

Search on facebook to find more friends.  Facebook can help you find more friends through your existing email contacts.  Then search on keywords related to your business to find potential new friends that may be interested in your business.

Join groups that are related to your business.  You can do a Facebook search by industry, location and company name.  If there aren’t any groups in your industry start one.

Develop your presence

Join wall for forum discussions.  Comment on other walls.  This will help you establish your identity and visibility.

Make your wall interesting.  Update frequently with promotions, events, surveys or ask for feedback on your products or services.

Post comments/quetions on your wall that will get a discussion going with your fans.  For example “Who do you think will make it to the Super Bowl?”

Syndicate

Wherever possible link back to your website.  Sometimes your facebook page may get more views than your website so it’s important to link it back to your website whenever possible.

Link your Facebook page to other social networking sites like your Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

Add a Facebook fan box to your website.  When people click on your fan book they will automatically become a fan without having to log in to Facebook

While doing my weekly search engine marketing readings I came across these best practices for ranking number one in the search engines by randfish from SEOmoz.

Ads Next’s unique solution practices these techniques to provide our clients with the greatest results and top organic rankings.

Best Practices for Ranking # 1

Curiously, though perhaps not entirely surprisingly to experienced SEOs, the truth is that on-page optimization doesn’t necessarily rank first in the quest for top rankings. In fact, a list that walks through the process of actually getting that first position would look something more like:

1. Accessibility – content engines can’t see or access cannot even be indexed; thus crawl-ability is foremost on this list.
2. Content – you need to have compelling, high quality material that not only attracts interest, but compels visitors to share the information. Virality of content is possibly the most important/valuable factor in the ranking equation because it will produce the highest link conversion rate (the ratio of those who visit to those who link after viewing).
3. Basic On-Page Elements – getting the keyword targeting right in the most important elements (titles, URLs, internal links) provides a big boost in the potential ability of a page to perform well.
4. User Experience – the usability, user interface and overall experience provided by a website strongly influences the links and citations it earns as well as the conversion rate and browse rate of the traffic that visits.
5. Marketing - I like to say that “great content is no substitute for great marketing.” A terrific marketing machine or powerful campaign has the power to attract far more links than content may “deserve,” and though this might seem unfair, it’s a principle on which all of capitalism has functioned for the last few hundred years. Spreading the word is often just as important (or more so) than being right, being honest or being valuable (just look at the political spectrum).
6. Advanced/Thorough On-Page Optimization – applying all of the above with careful attention to detail certainly isn’t useless, but it is, for better or worse, at the bottom of this list for a reason; in our experience, it doesn’t add as much value as the other techniques described.

By: searchengineland.com

From marketers to Wall Street analysts to the Department of Justice, everyone (even the general public) recognizes that Google is the 800-pound gorilla in the world of search. And particularly with the introduction of the generic 10-pack to Universal results, this fact largely holds true in Local Search as well. Google Maps has pulled even with Mapquest thanks largely to this decision by the higher-ups in Mountain View.

There’s tremendous value for small businesses in optimizing for Google’s Universal results, as Hanan Lifshitz pointed out last week. It’s hard not to imagine that small business owner grabbing the lion’s share of chiropractic searchers in his region, thanks to the efforts of Will Scott’s Search Influence firm.

But no matter your industry, when it comes to Local, it’s absolutely critical to think beyond Google, even if all you’re trying to do is optimize for the 10-pack.

The importance of citations for Google Maps

One of the pathways to “Local Organic Domination,” as Hanan termed it, is through the acquisition of citations. Citations are just mentions of your business name in close proximity to your address or phone number, with or without a link to your website. Think of them like votes of confidence for a particular business’slocation…the more confidence Google has in your listing, the higher they’re likely to display it in search results. So it’s important to list yourself fully and accurately in as many places across the web as possible, including blogs about your city or industry.

Bottom line, it’s hard to rank in Google Maps (and consequently Universal Search) without paying significant attention to how your business is listed across the web, not just on Google.

“Other” local search

One of Gib Olander’s favorite lines is: ” ‘other’ is the third-largest local search engine.” What he means is that local search is far more fragmented than traditional organic search. Unlike traditional search, if you’re only paying attention to getting your business on Google and Yahoo, you’re missing out on a huge chunk of local market share.

While the demise of the Print Yellow Pages seems imminent, Internet Yellow Pages sites are far healthier, and some are even thriving. YellowPages.com’s ad partnership with Bing is just one example…at least if Bing can continue to capitalize on its current hype. Superpages.com has long been a trusted source of data with its own steady traffic stream, and more recent entrants like InsiderPages and Yellowbot are starting to develop passionate user bases.

Then there’s the online classified market. Craigslist is the default place to look for local ’stuff” here on the West Coast, not to mention other major players like Oodle and Kijiji.

Vertical local search

Success in local also means promoting your presence on sites with strong market shares of their own in particular industries. This doesn’t mean only ranking well, but paying attention to what people are saying about you, responding to their feedback, and improving their perceptions.

For example, sites like TripAdvisor and Kayak are huge in the travel industry. Restauranteurs might even think about places like Yelp, BooRah, or Urban Spoon before thinking about Google. For chiropractors like Will’s client, these might include Planet Chiropractic and No More Clipboard. For searches near and dear to my heart, [golf courses] – it’s portals like Golf Digest and GolfNow.

(Incidentally, almost all of these sites make excellent citations for your Google Maps listing…)

Social local search

Many of the sites mentioned above, and even Google and Yahoo, straddle the line between social media and search due to the prominence of reviews in their users’ experience.  But local “searchers” are often turning to purely social sites like Twitter, Praized, and RetailMeNot as well for recommendations and sale information about Local businesses. And as we all learned from Dave Carroll’s brilliant lampoon of United Airlines last week, word-of-mouth can sometimes be more powerful than any search marketing campaign could be.

Conclusion

Local search traffic is only going to grow in importance.  So don’t “put your blinkers on” as Nick Faldo loves to say (indulge me…this is Open Championship week, after all) and focus all of your energies on Google. Your long-term chances for a successful online presence will suffer if you do.

I found this article interesting.  It’s a great article comparing Google and Microsoft.

By Ryan Singel  July 13  2009 

In less than a week, Google announced an operating system to compete with Windows, while Microsoft announced that Office 10 will include free, online versions of its four most popular software programs - a shot at Google’s suite of web-based office applications.

And not more than a month and a half ago, Microsoft unveiled its new search engine Bing which it hopes will steal market share from Google and finally make it real money online.

From the news of it, it’s a full-blown tech battle, complete with behind-the-scenes machinations to sic government regulators on each other.

It is, however, not a death match — it’s more of an fight to see who will be the King of Technology, since both companies pull in their billions through completely different siphons and are unlikely to severely wound one another any time soon.

Google pulled in $22 billion in revenue in 2008, 97 percent of which came tiny text ads bought by the keyword and placed next to search results or on pages around the web. Google makes a negligible amount of money bundling its online apps for businesses, charging $50 a head annually — but mostly it just gives its online text editor, email and spreadsheet programs away.

By contrast, Microsoft sold $14.3 billion worth of Microsoft Word and PowerPoint and other business applications over the last nine months, making a profit of $9.3 billion. It made a further $16 billion in revenue in 2008 through sales of its operating systems, which range from XP installations on netbooks, to Vista, to Windows Mobile to its server software.

Google now plans its own range of operating systems, starting with Android, an open-source OS for small devices like smartphones, and Chrome OS, a browser-focused, open-source OS that will run on notebooks and desktops.

Clearly top executives at each company look over at the others’ pots of gold and dream of ways to steal them, or at least make it harder for the other guy to make money. Read More

In the second part of 2009 Google will be launching a new product called Google Wave. One of Google Wave’s developers Lars Rasmussen describes the new product as, “what email would look like if it were invented today.” Google Wave is a real – time communication platform that combines email, instant messaging, wikis, web chat, social networking, and project management.

Software Engineering Manager, Lars Rasmussen comments: “Here’s how it works: In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It’s concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content — it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use “playback” to rewind the wave and see how it evolved.”

To Learn more about the Google Wave view the video below.

People are turning to the search engines more and more to search for “local” service providers, ranging from cosmetic dentists to cosmetic skin care, electricians to home remodelers.

Most of us deal with companies and businesses within a few miles of where we live, especially with the current state of the economy. It’s cheaper to shop local.

Just building a website is not enough anymore to succeed online. It is now crucial for any business hoping to expand their reach to have a high Internet presence that is aimed at targeting their local customers.

Effective Local Online Advertising  involves a professionally built website, a Local Search Engine Marketing Campaign, and someone that can manage both of these efforts. Below is an interesting article on internet Ad Spending from SMBs by Melinda Gipson from Burrell Associates. 

“In the last three years, Internet spending by SMBs has nearly tripled from 4 percent of sales to 11 percent. So says the latest Borrell Associates report “Main Street Goes Interactive.” But, while the collective heft of such businesses, numbering more than 14.6 million in the U.S., has tantalized numerous locally-targeted Internet marketing services who are deluging them with offers, Borrell warns, “the SMBs in any market are less like a two-ton gorilla and more like 1,000 four-pound monkeys – difficult to chase down and impossible to corral.”

The good news: such offers have this market’s attention. The bad news, they’re much less receptive to buying banner advertising (now 54 percent of their Internet spend, but declining in share), and more amenable to search engine advertising, online directory listings and streaming video. Rather than spend more on what publishers might define as advertising, they’re upping their budgets on site design, search engine optimization and customer databases.
By the numbers, in 2008 SMBs:

•    Were responsible for $6.9 billion in locally-generated, locally targeted Internet advertising – more than half the U.S. total;
•    Smaller merchants spent less than $300/ea on Web site support, but this expenditure will triple again in just a few years, Borrell predicts.

“SMBs are collectively poised to plow billions of dollars into their own Web sites,” but they appear to be extremely results oriented and have grown leery of Internet products that are “oversold and under-perform.”

The report is chock-full of insights on what kinds of SMBs are spending more online than their peers, by category of business (hint: general merchandise stores, auto marketing and Real Estate Services together account for 70 percent of all local online ad spending.) Pure-plays like Yahoo and Google control almost half of all local interactive ad spending by SMBs, irrespective of their size. Newspaper-owned interactive units follow in rank with a 28 percent share. In 2004, newspapers’ share was 50 percent and portals hovered around 20 percent, so these marketers’ roles are nearly reversed, even as the competition for attention heats up.

As Borrell puts it, “All in all, our interactive Main Street may look quiet, but when it comes to local interactive ad spending, it’s where the action is.”

It is important to keep marketing in a down market if you don’t you will lose touch with your clients. In a recession customer service and marketing is more important than at any other time. If you lose touch with your client base you won’t be able to see the trends your clients are facing.  Below is a good article from Adotas discussing how online advertising will probably continue to grow in this down economy.

“So it’s no surprise that marketers are shifting to direct-response ads, search and performance-based advertising and away from less measurable display and branding campaigns, according to Imran Khan, who runs the global Internet research at JP Morgan Chase, who spoke at the OMMA Global Hollywood

“Historically, ecommerce drives online advertising,” he said. “Roughly 4% of total retail sales in the U.S. are from ecommerce. Amazon’s recent revenue results came in at about 8% during a time when consumer consumption was down.”

Overall, roughly 8 percent of the total ad dollars in the U.S. is spent online, while many consumers spend about 30 percent of their time surfing the Web, according to MediaPost. About 85 percent of total ad dollars spent online in the U.K. is performance-driven, compared with 50 percent in the U.S., Khan said.

Brands want more effective ways to reach consumers and efficient tools and processes to buy advertising online. But as observers of social media marketers have noted, brand awareness trumps intent for purchase. If more and more people are interacting on social networks, is the performance-driven models a short term phase because of a terrible economy?”

Since its launch over a half of a year ago, Google Universal Search; a method of “blending results from variously  focused search engines” has received good but at times mixed results on the promises they have made, and kept. In particular are two major changes the good people at Google expressed would come to avid users; Comparative ranking and Blending.  Google has promised that these newly added backend features will better blend listings from its news, video, images local and book search engines among those it gathers from performing a “crawl” over web pages.

The move should be a “huge boon for regular users while search marketers who have paid attention to the importance of vertical or specialized searches will see new oppurtunities.  For example, if you created a web search for various “news headlines” then the actual headlines would not appear because Google was trying to determine if the “news results were more relevant than the web search results”.  However this has all changed thanks to the arrival of Google Universal Search. In essence, the search results are just that, more universal! Google has now allowed for web search results to be measure against other types of results such as news and images, not so before. If those results turn out to be more relevant than the web search then they are automatically added to the page, thus fulfilling a comparative ranking.

Basically comparative ranking will expand your search results while the “blending” issue will “no longer subtract”.  News results now will be “blended” with the top ten listings but instead with an odd number, say 4, 7, 8 or whatever, instead of being always at the top. This makes up for the “blending” part in Google’s Universal Search.

Overall most feel that this was a great move for Google to make, after hoping that the implementation works of course! However Google has expressed that there may be hiccups in the beginning and that moving forward with Google Universal Search all bugs and further streamlining will be addressed. Most articles covering the release of Google Universal and its ongoing progress stress that it should be helpful to searchers whom have simply ignored “vertical Search properties” and the good content within them.  It must also be said that most have stated for awhile that there would be two major changes coming for search engines: the personalization of search results and a much more focused attention to “the growth of the vertical”.

 Well it looks like that time has come and with an underlying appreciation for it as well.