aaron dalrymple dot com

I just read a great article by Mike Grehan about the future of Search Engine Optimization. The question, “what is the future of search” is getting asked a lot lately. It’s changed a whole lot since I first got involved just about 10 years ago.

One key element that Grehan points out is that SEO is a really a function of marketing, which I don’t think many people outside the industry (and some inside) really understand. He says,

…even though industry leaders acknowledge that SEO is much more of a marketing process than a technical effort, there’s still a lot of fixation on crawler activity and indexing.

Most new clients and even developers I work with tend to think that I can put up some meta tags and do some voodoo to their code and, POOF, their site will be “optimized.” A lot of people (and, again, developers) call me a week before a new site is set to go live and say, “can you make sure this is optimized?”

Another thing Grehan mentions that stands out to me is:

Personalization and digital asset optimization will end 1999-style ranking reports, as search engine results will be based on blended results from end-user specifics, such as geographic location, time of day, previous searching history, and peer group preference.

Thank god! I’ve already started to ween myself, and clients, off of ranking reports. And with the availability of good analytics programs (like Google Analytics), there is really no need to base success on a handful of keywords. Ranking reports are easy to manipulate, inaccurate, can provide a false sense of SEO success (or failure) and, today, really have very little value.

It HAS to be about conversions! 1000 #1 placements aren’t any good if users aren’t going to and taking action on your site. Unfortunately, the search industry is still pushing rankings (Guaranteed #1 in Google!) as the be-all and end-all of SEO success. Let me make this my new motto:

Rankings are not an End, But a Means to an End…

Another key here is that great rankings and great traffic still aren’t any good on a broken site. This is why I’ve started to include a site analysis incorporating usability best practices as part of my standard SEO offering. My job is not rankings, it’s to help my clients succeed.

Another thing to point out from Grehan’s piece is that SEO is really turning into Reputation Management:

Reputation management will become more important as marketing continues its reversal from a broadcast medium to a listening medium.

It’s part of your overall marketing message. It’s about having a consistent marketing message acorss all channels and monitoring the voice of consumers. It’s social networks, it’s blogs, it’s public relations, it’s search results, and… just a little bit of voodoo. (-;

The Future of SEO - ClickZ

Tagged as: Google, Search Engines, Marketing, SEO, Online Marketing, Analytics, Mike Grehan, Future of SEO

1 Comment »

My friend and neighbor, Dennis Cass, recently released the paperback version of his book, Head Case. In this video from his site he explores some of the ways to promote his book on the Internets:

Tagged as: Marketing, Online Marketing, Books, Dennis Cass, Head Case

No Comments »

Great post here from Marketing Pilgrim, and a good lively conversation in the comments. What I would add to the discussion is that many clients WANT exactly what Greg is cautioning against in his post. Most of his points are great, but, unfortunately, a lot of people who call me (I don’t cold call) are looking for a quick meta tag and link building type campaign because the IT folks don’t want to hear your suggestions, the marketing folks don’t want your ideas and the product people don’t want your advice. I agree that SEO programs should be fully integrated, but convincing customers of that is sometimes difficult. They view it as a condiment instead of an integral part of the website sandwich…

The tips here are valid, but I don’t think they should necessarily be presented as find out if your SEO guy is unscrupulous… They should be presented as suggestions to help businesses understand why they need an integrated SEO program with a respectable budget attached to it - and, perhaps, why it is better to do it in-house…
Read on:

8 Tips for Avoiding an SEO Fraudster

Tagged as: Travel Marketing, Search Engines, Marketing, SEM, SEO, Online Marketing, Link Building, PR, SEO Consultants, Greg Howlett, marketing Pilgrim

No Comments »

Making practical sense of web stats such as time-on-site and pages-per-visit is hard enough. Getting those mysterious numbers to paint a picture that helps quantify results for companies and clients is nearly impossible with most metrics. Spencer Lavery of FreshEgg.com has come up with an equation he calls the “Engagement Factor” to help make sense of user’s behavior that looks beyond visitors and conversions.

Internet travel is so focused on conversion factors that sometimes we forget that engaging users really is the first step to converting them to customers. Many travelers simply don’t buy on their first visit to a given site; if you’re ONLY chasing sales conversion rates you may be missing out on a much more basic conversion factor… converting visitors to return visitors so that you have a second or third chance to convert them to customers.

Check out his equation below. Does this make sense for travel sites? I think it might…

The Engagement Factor - Google, Internet Marketing, Web Design,

Tagged as: Travel Marketing, Marketing, SEM, Online Marketing, Analytics, metrics, internet marketing, travel marketing, engadgement factor

1 Comment »

According to Zagat, 75% of travelers say they now use the Internet as their primary means of booking, particularly air travel. While this means great opportunity for search marketers in the travel space, it also means that the space is more competitive than ever. The survey further states that the most commonly used website to book travel is Expedia.com while TripAdvisor.com takes the honors when it comes to finding travel information. Of course with all of the affiliate sites out there for these two companies, I wonder how many people even know that they’re using Expedia or TripAdvisor…

Another report, released by PhoCusWright, states that next year - for the first time - transactions on the Internet will account for over half (54 percent) of all U.S. travel bookings. Other findings from the report include:

• While the U.S. represented just one third of total online and offline travel bookings of the combined North America, Western Europe and Asia Pacific markets in 2005, the U.S. share of online bookings was over 60 percent of all online bookings.
• Growth of dynamic packaging — the ability of consumers to easily combine airline, hotel, rental car and other product purchases online — is projected to slow significantly from 51 percent in 2005 to 18 percent in 2008. This trend is partly attributable to the current tight supply of bulk airfares and merchant hotel rates available for packages, thanks to higher load factors and occupancy as suppliers enjoyed strong sales during the recent robust economy.
• Hotels will be the fastest growing segment online, surpassing air travel, which until 2006 had long been the fastest growing product segment.
• The advanced level of the U.S. online travel market creates an atmosphere in which many innovations such as dynamic packaging, metasearch and user-generated content incubate in the U.S. before expanding to other global markets. Many of these innovations include the new online capabilities that PhoCusWright has termed Travel 2.0 — the travel industry’s application of Web 2.0 practices empowering the online consumer.
• The tipping point of the travel market, with the online channel becoming the norm for travel purchases, is going to further shape consumer behavior that utilizes Travel 2.0 tools and applications.

I have to somewhat disagree with these statements on “Travel 2.0″ though. I think they may be a bit premature. I’m not sure that anyone has figured out how to bring value to the consumer, using 2.0 elements, that translates into revenue. Until that happens, what good is it to a bread and butter company that’s trying to sell travel - not trying to impress investors (we all know how well that’s worked out in the past)?

So, how do you go about standing out in a sea of affiliate sites, rising CPCs and product commodification? And, will 2.0 be the answer?

Zagat Survey Coverage

PhoCusWrigt Press Release

Tagged as: Travel Marketing, Search Engines, Marketing, SEM, SEO, Online Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Zagat, PhoCusWright, Travel2.0, Web2.0, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Online Travel

1 Comment »

I think I mentioned something about this last month. Sure enough, here it is.

Analytics have never been easy to nail down. Even though most internet marketers have a love affair with them, they’re not always reliable or easy to comprehend for that matter. The data you really want many times seems just out of reach for even the best web stats packages. And as technology changes, so does the ability of today’s webstat packages to accurately track visitors on your site.

According to this piece from ClickZ, tabbed browsing, which is part of Firefox and will soon be a part of Microsoft’s IE7, has changed the way that users interact with websites and may, at some point, have an impact on the accuracy of your web analytics. Tabbed browsing may affect cookie tracking, path tracking, time on site (heck, sometimes I have pages open in tabs for days at a time), and others, all mentioned in the article.

Last month I linked to a clickstream study that believes that web services are largely responsible for changes in how users interact with the web, including the fact that 15% of all web navigation actions are now form submissions.

I would also be curious to learn how AJAX is affecting web analytics. In an AJAX application, the interaction with the user all takes place within one page view…

Web Analytics: The Results of Tabbed Browsing

Tagged as: Travel Marketing, Marketing, Online Marketing, Analytics, AJAX, Web Analytics, IE7, Firefox, Tabbed Browsing, Clickstream

No Comments »

A recent study analyzing clickstream data and eye tracking results found that the web is quickly becoming the interactive tool that it has always promised to be. The development of web based technologies like Ajax and the expanding adoption of broadband have led to a number of changes in how users interact with the web.

The University of Hamburg research found:

• An F-shaped pattern of clicking activity similar to results found in eye tracking studies. There appears to be a strong link between our eye and hand movements over the surface of web pages.
• Following links accounts for 43.5% of page transitions.
• Direct access through bookmarks, typing in urls, or home page buttons has remained relative steady over the last several years at around 10%. However, new window launches has jumped from less than 1% to over 10% of all page transitions in the past 11 years.
• Form submission has increased from 4.4% to over 15% of all navigation actions reflecting the increase in web services
• 43% of all form submissions involve search submission, followed by online dictionary and travel planners.
• There has been a 50% drop in the use of the back button for web navigation.

The study attributes many of these changes to the increase in web services, AJAX, etc. I wonder how much tabbed browsing affects these numbers as well? Considering the study was performed with “experienced volunteers,” are avid users more likely to use tabbed browsing and therefore driving the new window launches up considerably? I know I use tabbed browsing and launch links in a new tab more often than I use back and forward button browsing. Other findings include:

• Over 45% of all user clicks occured in a region slightly larger than the upper left quadrant of the visible page.
• Over three quarters (76.5%) of selected links were in the visible area at load time (above the fold).
• 23% of all links followed were below the fold.
• For 1024 by 768 screen users, the average available document width was about 890 pixels because users are not necessarily expanding their browser window to fill their entire screen.
• The average web page has 53 hyperlinks and 551 visible words.
• 25% of all documents were displayed for less than 4 seconds and 52% of all visits were shorter than 10 seconds with a peak value located between 2 and 3 seconds.

The data also reveals some mistakes that we make when designing pages for the more dynamic Interweb.

• Designing pages for a specific resolution may not be a great idea. Users generally only use 85% of their available screen space for a browser window. And, users almost never scroll horizontally. Make sure your “above the fold” calculations consider this data.
• Fast loading pages are as important as ever. With 52% of users visiting a page for less than 10 seconds, your page should load in less than four… And don’ forget that some still use dial-up.
• The upper left hand corner of the page is where most users are clicking. Put your important links there. Be careful not to put important links (usually those that generate revenue) in areas that users generally ignore.

I do see a few problems with the data. For instance, it appears by the heat maps that Google’s layout has greatly influenced the results… I wonder how different the heat maps would loook if the search engine sessions were ommited from the data… See the entire write-up here:

Clickstream Study Reveals Dynamic Web - fast web navigation in browser study heatmaps

Tagged as: Travel Marketing, Marketing, Online Marketing, Other, clickstream, interweb, University of Hamburg, heat map, click data, eye tracking

1 Comment »

In yesterday’s post about the struggle for customers between agents, online agencies and suppliers, I noted that branded sites (airlines, hotel chains, cruise lines, etc.) are fighting hard to cut out the middleman and have their customers book direct. Some do it through incentives like free miles or points, some do it with low rate guarantees or a combination of both.

United Airlines, for example, has a low rate guarantee and gives you 1000 miles when you book direct. Therefore, I use Orbitz to search for a flight, then usually book directly with the airline and save a few bucks. Which makes the point that the airline sites really need better shopping tools…

Airlines have done a pretty “good” job at online price control. The cruise industry is finally getting there too (after some changes that caused a lot of heartburn for cruise resellers, including my former employer). Hotels, though, have an uphill battle controlling brand and pricing through online channels.

Hitwise has released a white paper on search engine brand management that focuses on “brand theft” with some examples from the travel industry.

I have a bit of a problem with over zealous brand protection in the travel industry when it comes to PPC advertising. There is definitely a line that can be crossed, but many chains are abandoning a philosophy that helped make them a successful brand in the first place: other people selling your rooms. Instead of making enemies out of resellers, they should recognize that maybe others can sell their products better than they can. Some of us were selling online back when the hotels still thought it was just a fad that didn’t deserve any real resources (oh, and that was just a few years ago).

Give us a reason to want to book direct (incentives, exclusive inventory, price, content, something!). Don’t just make sure nobody else is buying your brand name in the search engines. Seems like those resources would be better spent on actually listening to the online travel consumer.

Hitwise’s study is definitely worth a read, especially if you can’t afford to buy keywords for your own brand name anymore. (-;

Download it here:

Hitwise White Paper

Tagged as: Travel Marketing, Search Engines, Marketing, SEM, Online Marketing, brand management, Hitwise, United Airlines, branding, hotels, PPC

No Comments »

If you use Google Adwords to buy PPC advertising, you’ve no doubt noticed some changes to your accounts over the weekend. It seems that Google has launched their update that takes into heavy consideration landing pages when determining your minimum CPC, ranking and whether or not your ads even show up.

Just to review, Google has always used a combination of click-through-rate (CTR) and your maximum cost-per-click (CPC) when determining your rank in the paid listings section of their results page. If your CTR wasn’t high enough, your CPC was too low or some combination of those factors, your ads will be inactivated by Google until you raise the CPC to a new “minimum.” The logic here is that only ads with high CTRs make it to the top of the results. Makes sense.

Now, Google is also inspecting the landing page that the ads point to to make sure it’s relevant to the ad with the goal of providing a more positive experience for the Google user, oh AND helping Google’s bottom line, I’m sure. From Google:

“Although it is counter-intuitive to some who hear it, we’d rather show one less ad than to show an ad which leads to a poor user experience — since long-term user trust in AdWords is of overarching importance.”

In true Google fashion, however, the change has been dramatic, without adequate warning to advertisers or its own employees, and is causing lots of heartburn among many advertisers. Minimum CPCs have gone through the roof making them unrealistic for most advertisers. Again, from Google:

“We realize that some minimum bids may be too high to be cost-effective — indeed, these high minimum bids are our way of motivating advertisers to either improve their landing pages or to simply stop using AdWords for those pages, while still giving some control over which keywords to advertise on.”

Even though Google states that, “that the vast majority of advertisers will not be affected at all by this change,” there is a lot of talk on the blogs and forums since the changes took place at the end of last week (nearly 30 pages of posts on Webmaster World) making me doubt that it’s that isolated among larger advertisers. One person I spoke to who manages several Adwords accounts said that for one account nearly 90% of their terms have been deactivated. That’s enough for anyone to lose lots of sleep over.

Here are some posts, discussions and insights on the matter:

• WebMaster World Discussion: Open letter to Google Regarding Changes to The Ad Words Program

• SEOBook - Google AdWords Landing Page Quality Scores

• ClickZ - Google Advertisers Upset Over Landing Page Scoring

• Google - Landing page quality update

• SearchEngineWatch - Many Advertisers Are Frustrated With Google’s New Quality Score & Pricing

• Search Engine Roundtable - AdWords Landing Page Quality Score Causing Epidemic

• JenSense - New landing page quality score could affect click aribtrage publishers

It seems that Google Adwords is setting itself up to be usable only by advertising agencies or companies large enough to employ dedicated PPC staff, which is unfortunate. One of the great things about advertising on PPC networks has been that a company doing business out of the garage could always compete head-to-head with major corporations and suppliers…

Tagged as: Google, Search Engines, Marketing, SEM, Online Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Google Adwords, PPC, Adwords, PPC Advertising, pay per click

1 Comment »

Remember back in the early nineties when the internet was going to be this great tool that could connect people and cultures, a great tool of communication and collaboration?  I’m sure that was the premise behind other technologies, like radio and television, as well.  But, sure as day, those ideals give way to commerce and much of the technology becomes a tool to sell stuff.  Think about radio and television; one could argue that today they mostly exist to sell advertising, not some “greater cause.”

Naturally, the internet went the same way.

But, all of the social networking sites that are popping up seem to make the web more like what the promise of the internet has been all along.  The reality is, however, that all of these sites are going to need real business models to survive, because they’re not cheap to run or maintain.  Even scarier is the fact that a lot of folks would love to get there hands on all that data and use it for purposes not originally intended.  Mix that with companies desperately needing cash and we may have a pending privacy nightmare.

Now throw in the government, who also sees a gold mine of data just hanging out there, and social networking starts to look like something out of The Minority Report…

New Scientist has discovered that Pentagon’s National Security Agency, which specialises in eavesdropping and code-breaking, is funding research into the mass harvesting of the information that people post about themselves on social networks.

I’m generally not the paranoid type, but this article is pretty eye opening:
New Scientist Technology - Pentagon sets its sights on social networking websites