By M.E. Marra 

Online video has received a lot of attention in Social Media — social search sites such as MySpace and YouTube (owned by Google) that offer groups, profiles, blogs, video posts and searchable databases through which these online communities locate like-minded members and communicate.  ComScore Networks monitored traffic for online videos at five major sites for one month, October to November 2006, and saw traffic bump up by 19%. And it’s not just music videos anymore: A 2006 Online Media Survey from Piper Jaffray found 51% of online video watchers are viewing news videos; while 26% and 41% watched TV shows or movie previews, respectively. Product & Shopping Search.  So much for the news, information and entertainment consumption of online video, noted above. Comparison shopping engines and product shopping sites were quick to adopt images and videos as “search keywords” to access their products. For example, fashion site Like.com offers celebrity look-alike handbags, hats and accessories, all searchable by photos and video clips of the famously fashionable.  Comparison shopping engines — which aggregate different brands and labels at one shopping site – often feature not only search-by-image capabilities to visitors; but some also offer interactive video features for “virtual try-on,” on-the-fly color changes, or matching up clothing separates into new ensembles. 

Video Mashups.  Now a collaboration among Yahoo! Video, Huffington Post political news site and online magazine Slate offers the tools, video clips and access to users who search, create and edit their own video newscasts. These user-created video mashups are set up to provide individualized Democratic Presidential Candidate Debate Videos. However, the video tools’ application to product marketing, search and e-Commerce is only a matter of time. Salon e-Magazine and Huffington Post web site worked with a long list of user-submitted debate questions for presidential candidates, which were asked and videotaped via TV personalities Charlie Rose and Bill Maher, as multiple Democratic Presidential Candidates answered at length. This front-end production of the video clip information base eliminated middle men typical of TV broadcast debates: No pundits, No moderators, No show producers, and No short time clocks or forced sound-byte answers. Enter Yahoo! Video, which stores the scannable video clips and offers Yahoo’s web-based video editing tool called “Jumpcut.” Site visitors select the questions and issues in which they are most interested; pull video clip answers; and digitally cut-n-paste together their own candidate debate tape, including editing out windbags, rambling and repetitive replies! 

Voila! Personalized debate video mashups. Sterling Market Intelligence analyst Greg Sterling noted that this new video widget from Yahoo! allows people to compare interviews and candidate positions “side-by-side on issues of concern. Sort of like online comparison shopping.”  Outside of informed citizenship and individually edited political debate, there are practical and commercial marketing applications for this video editing tool kit.  Eric Cho, in a recent Search Engine Marketing Hints, tried to prepare for the leap from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 applications. Cho speculated that we finally accepted the “old” Web 2.0 innovations of human editors and the influence of social sites, over what he calls “traditional SEO, where we manipulate keywords, get links, submit to directories, etc.” Then comes the latest Killer App, video, which Cho calls the booming media avenue. Cho’s predictions: We’re watching TV; watching our families, friends and social groups; and communicating online, rather than over telephones (landline, cellular of VoIP). And we’re doing all of this via video fed through one single device.   “There will definitely be a big evolution with video search and Video SEO and PPC in the coming years,” says Eric Cho. Blame it on the next killer app: video.

Advertisers pay for clicks, and publishers make commission on each click that their traffic source provides.  Yet the very model of pay-per-click advertising opens itself up to fraudulent activity, putting advertisers at risk of paying commissions to publishers with poor quality and/or synthetic traffic.

As a result of click fraud, advertisers suffer decreased ROI, and subsequently the entire industry is placed in jeopardy.  Advertisers may lower their bids or pull their PPC campaigns altogether.  Legitimate publishers are left with reduced commissions, and the result is that both sides of PPC networks deteriorate.  The entire industry is threatened.

Detecting and preventing click fraud is the only solution to this powerful and pervasive force that has tainted the PPC advertising industry to the detriment of advertisers, legitimate publishers and PPC search engines.  This task rests in the hands of PPC engines themselves.

And while no one organization will ever be able to say that they have completely eradicated click fraud from their networks, recently there have been considerable strides taken to combat click fraud, with many second and third-tier PPC search engines dropping significant portions of their syndication networks because of some blatant fraudulent activity.

PPC engines need to have the capacity to understand the value of their traffic and be able to distinguish high-quality traffic from poor-quality sources.  The development of proprietary tools to analyze traffic data for advertisers is the best way to deliver solid ROI consistently.  Nothing speaks louder than hard data that show conversions with traffic sources and the revenue this spend generates.  For example, GenieKnows.com employs a traffic-analysis team and the proprietary technology of the Genie Shield product to deliver conversion tracking, which eliminates automated clicking by detecting and removing paid-to-click traffic.  It also analyzes click patterns based on user activity and micro-manages traffic sources on a per-URL or per-IP basis.

With proactive measures in place, PPC engines are able to strengthen relationships with advertisers, optimizing their campaigns to ensure that their ROI continues to grow.  Naturally, if an advertiser is making a profit on their PPC campaigns, they will certainly want to reinvest.

There is a wealth of potential waiting to be realized in online advertising and within PPC advertising specifically.  While billions of dollars are currently spent annually, billions more are still waiting to be invested, provided that advertisers’ spends are met with profitable conversions.

I’ve been spending a great deal of time lately reading about landing page optimization. What to do, what not to do, various factors, etc. Based on my research, here are a few factors to keep in mind when working on designing and improving your landing pages:

1) Keep Focused on Your Primary Objective
When writing your copy, laying out your landing page and considering multiple call-to-actions, keep your primary objective in mind at all times. You want to avoid placing strong emphasis on any secondary calls-to-action that draw visitor attention away from the primary objective. In addition, multiple call-to-actions (e.g. offers) can confuse visitors and lead to high drop-off rates.

2) Choose a Clear and High Visibility Headline Placement
Not only is it important to carefully craft your headline, it’s also important to select a highly visible location for your headline on the landing page. Always keep the headline relevant to the primary objective and connect the main text and headline to what visitors are specifically seeking. Don’t make it difficult or too metaphorical. Simple typically beats crafty.

3) Present the Call-to-Action Clearly and Vibrantly Right on the Landing Page
If your primary objective involves filling out a registration form or any other information gathering/search-related call-to-action, place the form clearly on the landing page in a prime real estate location. Draw attention to it via color, images and text. The use of white space is critical because you want visitors to feel at ease with completing the form. Don’t make it feel like a burden with long forms and with information fields that don’t appear relevant to the visitor’s main intent for being on the landing page; You can always get other information later on if you really need it.

4) Reduce Navigational Links
In most cases (e-commerce sites may be the main exception) the less navigational links the better. If you do use navigational links they should be call-to-actions that take the visitors to a second page with a new registration form (or related call-to-action) and some additional detail directly related to the alternative call-to-action link. These links keep the visitor on track with fulfilling your primary objective and help provide some research (e.g. customer insight) about what your main landing page content should focus on.

5) Use Crisp, Eye-attracting Images
Creating highly effective landing pages can be time-consuming to design and develop because of the high-quality images they employ. Landing pages that use crisp images, excellent visual hierarchy and strong relevant photos connect quickly with visitors. Relevant means being directly related to the visitors’ reasons for visiting your website in the first place.

These are just a few landing page optimization factors. Just like designing any new creative, it takes time and knowledge to get it right in a way that produces powerful results. Remember, always be sure to test potential factors to see what works best for your visitors in achieving your primary objectives.

Good luck to you on your landing page optimization!

Successful search engine optimization is very much like a game of tug-of-war; your team will be much better off if you all pull in the same direction. By the same token if you take the time to consider small details in your website’s structure and ensure that all of the details are working together, you will ultimately benefit. I’m going to cover a few of the key elements to successful SEO and show how synergizing your optimization efforts can work for you.

Key Components of SEO
Let’s begin by breaking down some of the key components to search engine optimization, which include the Title Tag, URL, Header Tag, Content, Internal Links, and External Links.

Title Tag
The bar at the top of your browser is probably the single most important component to search engine optimization. Most sites that you find on the Web will say something like “Company Name – Home” in this area. That’s great—if you’re very well branded and only want to be found for your company’s name.

Instead, try putting your most important keywords in this area, and keep it under control. It’s a good idea to try to keep the total character length to less than 68 characters, including spaces. For the purpose of this blog, let’s make up a page. Let’s say this is a website that sells pet supplies, and we’re going to focus specifically on the fish tank page. So, we have www.yoursite.com/fish-tank/. Your title tag is “Fish Tank | Aquarium Rocks | Fish Tanks.” The total character length is 40. That’s pretty short, but it’s concise, and it’s all the keywords I want to focus on for this page. (Please note that this is merely an example. I didn’t research the proper key words at all and so this may not be the best example. It is for the purpose of illustration and nothing more.)

URL
Google seems to be paying more attention to keywords in the URL, so if you don’t already have rankings, if your site is new, or if you are redesigning your site and will be creating new URLs anyway, consider adding some keywords here. Sticking with our previous example, the best choice is www.yoursite.com/fish-tanks/.

Header Tag
The H1 tag is another key element that must be in synergy with the rest. This appears to most Web visitors as the “title” of the page. This header is usually big, bold and describes exactly what’s on the page. Some sites don’t have a headline or title above the copy at all, but having an H1 tag is another key element to proper SEO. Using our example, the H1 of this page is “Fish Tanks.” Are you beginning to notice a pattern?

Content
One of the most obvious components to good SEO is content, and yet many sites are lacking in it. Write 250 words or so of copy that is relevant to that page. Make sure that you’re using the same words/wording as the Title tag, URL, and H1. It’s probably a good idea to use the words “fish tanks” here as well.

Internal Links
If you are going to link from www.yoursite.com to the “fish tank” page, be sure that you use the words “fish tank” in the anchor text on that link.

External Links
Be really careful not to get all “spammy” here. If you can find relevant websites that would link to product/services pages that are relevant for inclusion, that’s fabulous. But do not, I repeat, do not get too focused on one keyword. Get some links to your internal pages from external sites that have “fish tank” in the anchor text and have these sites link to your /fish-tank/ page. Then, go get some other links for the /aquarium-rocks/ page that have the “aquarium rocks” anchor text.

Details, Details!
The point of this is to show that taking a little extra time to create synergy with your title tag, content, headers and linking is the recipe to successful search engine optimization. Of course, this isn’t everything that you need to know for search engine optimization. There are probably around 250 criteria that a search engine might consider to determine which website to rank for a given search phrase.

As always, if you’re unsure of a major change that you’re about to make, please consult with a SEO professional. Reckless changes to a website can have major effects on rankings and ultimately, your bottom line.

On Tuesday July 10th ScanAlert will be releasing its latest research report regarding consumer conversion cycles. I have yet to look over the full report, but from what I’ve gathered thus far it looks like consumers are taking longer these days to convert—80% longer, in fact. According to the report, consumers are now taking an average of 34 hours and 19 minutes to buy products they have found on ecommerce sites, up from 19 hours when the same study was conducted in 2005.

This is surprising news to everyone in the ecommerce industry and should definitely be considered by anyone who is currently measuring their conversion rates according to immediate sales; that kind of instant gratification shopping seems to be a thing of the past and does not give a full picture of one’s sales success. Online shoppers are getting smarter and savvier these days and ecommerce sites need to step it up if they wish to lessen the time gap between first click and sale.

With competition only a few clicks away consumers are now doing a great deal of comparison shopping, and they’re not just looking for the cheapest deal anymore. Studies for the past seven years show that price is rarely the main deciding factor in making the sale. Shoppers are more interested in factors such as shipping speed, guarantees, on-site merchandising, merchant name-brands, and trustworthiness to name but a few.

There are many things you can do help prevent conversion delay. Anne Holland, Content Director of MarketingSherpa.com suggests becoming more human to potential customers. The importance of merchant brand cannot be stressed enough, so it’s wise to place “about us” sections in conspicuous places, and not just on the site’s homepage; with good SEO and SEM, the homepage is often bypassed completely. I suggest placing drop-down menus with the “about us” option on all pages so that it can be accessed from whatever pages are initially clicked from the search engines. Make it personable. Be smart. Be funny. But whatever you do, be memorable.

Really stress the reasons why someone should buy your product or service as opposed to that of your competitor. Do you have any big clients worth noting? Did your company receive some kind of special recognition in the past that might impress potential customers? It’s also wise to include photographs of your company in action because, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Also, pictures provide tangible evidence of a real, thriving business which can be helpful in this day and age of rampant internet fraud. Alleviating consumer fears by creating an environment of trust is key and can ultimately lead to quicker conversions.

In addition to having a decent “about us” section, it is also a good idea to collect consumer email addresses as soon as possible rather than at the typical time of checkout; if the consumer doesn’t make it all the way to that point, chances are you’re too late. You can’t rely on consumer memories to get them back to your site. Even if they try looking at their browser history they can easily confuse you with some of your competitors that research shows they’re definitely looking at. And you certainly don’t want them to re-do the search in some engine and click your sponsored link for a second time when you’ve already paid for them to do it the first time, especially when grabbing their emails in the first place is so easy to do. Perhaps you can entice new users with special discounts via email through a DHTML overlay, that way they’ll have a link to your site in their email inbox along with specials that make you stand out. As Anne put it, “If you wait to ask for email permission until the actual checkout, then you’ll miss the opportunity to promote fleeing shoppers.”

It is also a good idea to have some worthwhile content on each of your pages. While not every shopper reads all of the product information provided on an ecommerce site, it’s still wise to provide it. This is especially true if you’re selling big-ticket items; people don’t want to spend a ton of money on a product they know nothing about. The key is to give more information than your competition gives, and this can be anything from product reviews to shipping/in-stock data and everything in between, but don’t rely solely on data feeds from the manufacturer. This is usually not enough information to create conversions. In this case, more is better—always. Even random trivia can do the trick. You can also provide consumer forums where your potential customers can get real, honest product reviews from your past customers. They’ll probably appreciate the honesty which will contribute to that warm, fuzzy atmosphere of trust I spoke about earlier.

Another way to get a leg up on the competition is to offer unique extras and specials that are exclusive to your company and to your website. For example, you might consider offering free gifts to those who purchase a certain amount of your top-selling product, especially if you’re in the business of selling a product that truly can’t be found elsewhere. According to Anne of MarketingSherpa, the “extras” can be as simple as providing PDF format eBooks that have some kind of practical and/or entertainment value to them. Some examples include how-to guides, simple recipes, or expert advice. The trick is to provide gifts that won’t add to your shipping costs (hence the suggestion of downloadable eBooks.) You can also offer up coupons and discounts for subsequent purchases, or anything else that extends your brand. Get creative for the best results.

These are just a few things to think about. Surely more will come up for you when you get a chance to read the full report by ScanAlert when it is released tomorrow. If you have a better understanding of eConsumer behavior, chances are you’ll be able to win the battle against sluggish conversion rates, if not the war.

I’m sure you’ve all heard about the Net Neutrality issue and how AT&T was fighting this legislation tooth and nail but then made a concession not to pursue two-tiered pricing on the Internet in return for getting FCC approval for it’s lucrative ATT-BellSouth merger.
However, this concession by ATT does not mean that the legislation is going to be passed. Republicans have historically opposed it while Democrats are in favor. Recently, two senators, one a Democrat (Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-ND) and the other a Republican (Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-ME) have introduced a bill to guarantee that Internet service providers do not discriminate against content providers with two-tiered pricing policies. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA), head of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet, plans to hold hearings on a newly introduced Net Neutrality bill later this year.
Both House and Senate refused to pass Net Neutrality legislation last year, and it could also be an uphill battle this year. The very nature of the Internet is threatened if Net Neutrality does not pass. It will no longer be a level playing field for all comers if two-tiered pricing is allowed to prevail, abandoning both free speech and commerce.
We at JP Communications support this legislation. Net Neutrality will guarantee that all companies and individuals, large and small, will have the same access to consumers on the Internet. This democratic principle lies at the foundation of the Internet and should remain intact as we go forward.

Those who advocate charging more for rich media delivery content are the big telcos (AT&T and Verizon) and the cable companies (Comcast). They propose a two-tiered pricing model that would allow companies who can afford it to pay more for getting their rich media pages loaded faster. Convenient for them, but not for everyone else.
Note that these opponents claim regulation of the Internet is unnecessary and will stifle investment, innovation and creativity. However, Net Neutrality is not about regulating the Internet. It is about regulating the carriers.
We need to keep the barriers to entry low on the Internet. This position is held by Net Neutrality advocates such as Google, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay, to name a few. Many of today’s Internet giants did not even exist in the early ‘90s. It was only because of the Internet’s low-entry barriers and ability to connect consumer with marketers that these Internet companies are worth billions of dollars today. This will never happen again if Net Neutrality legislation is not passed. If you work in any Internet marketing channel, I urge you to support Net Neutrality. I urge you to support Net Neutrality by contacting your Congressional Representative and Senators to let them know how you feel.

Jason Prescott