Ironvine Search Marketing

ChannelAdvisor Lays off 19% of its Workforce

Sad to say, I was one of them. Apparently there were 32 Employees let go in the US offices.

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y09/m01/i23/s04
http://onlinesaleschannels.wordpress.com/2009/01/22/my-liquid-lunch-with-ex-ca-employees/

I look at this as a good thing though as I was the only member of the Seattle office left on staff after they vacated the office building in Oct 2008. (Yes, no more west coast office). I have had to work out of my home office since then. It will be nice to be able to get back into traveling to work and getting to talk to other people, sharing and learning new things.

If anyone knows a company looking for a Search Marketing guru feel free to contact me at steve @ ironvine.com!

My condolences to all the other employees that were let go this week I wish you all the best, and to my former co-workers it was a great 2 years. Take care!

Yahoo board formally rejects Microsoft’s $45 billion bid, saying it ’substantially undervalues’ the company.

Microsoft responds to Yahoo. Says rejection of $45B bid is ‘unfortunate’ and that it’s ‘offering shareholders superior value.’

Read more about the battle at fortune.cnn.com

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Yahoo, Takeover, Ironvine

SES was a pretty good conference. The event hall was pretty well staffed with vendors including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Ask, iProspect, and many more. There were lots of Search companies, link building companies, and various other web companies.

My conference was highlighted by the Google invite only Agency Lunch and the Google Dance at the Google Campus in Mountain View.

The Google Lunch was a small group of invite only agency people. I sat at a table with the CEO and a few other people from advertising.com. The presentation was basically all about the new Google offerings in addition to search, Print, TV, Radio, etc. Print as well possibly. I’m sure some of our clients already do radio ads and could be pretty easy to migrate over. The nice thing is that Google offers ways to track the performance, like dedicated phone numbers which they offer for free or by using dedicated trackable entry points.

Google Dance 2007 was a huge bash at the Google campus in Mountain Home.
You can see more pics from Google on picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/gdance2007/GoogleDance2007WeRockedIt
There were lots of product demos on all the Google applications, Meet the Developers, food, drinks, a huge dance party in the rec hall, green screen karaoke, and my favorite the Candy Bar.

All in all it was a great trip. Met lots of people in the event hall and the sessions had some decent information. Next time I hope to get into some of the other sessions to see what they are about.

Technorati Tags: SES, San Jose, Search Engine Stratagies, Search, Paid Search, Marketing, Advertising, Ironvine, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo

There are three important new changes coming from Yahoo Search Marketing:

1. Short descriptions will be required when you create or modify an ad, beginning in May 2007.
Long descriptions will be optional. Currently, you have two options for your ad descriptions: long (up to 190 characters) and short (70 characters or fewer).

2. Yahoo! Search results will only show short descriptions beginning in June 2007.
If you only use long descriptions, your ad will be automatically cut off to fit within the 70-character limit, which may impact your ability to communicate valuable information to users and your results. We recommend that you create a short description for any existing ad to guarantee that your most important information is included.

3. Display URLs will be limited to 35 or fewer characters.
Please shorten your display URLs as needed.

In the example below, key messages, such as competitive pricing and free shipping, are not included in the “cut-off” ad:

Why are we making this change?
We’ve found that ads written more concisely give users a better experience and generally get better results. Users are exposed to higher quality search ads and advertisers may attract more interested and enthusiastic potential customers. So don’t wait until June– start now.

What You Need to Do:
• Don’t have short descriptions for all of your ads?
Start now! Please create short descriptions for these ads before June 1. How to add short descriptions.
• What happens if I don’t do anything?
Any “long description” of more than 70 characters will be automatically cut off in Yahoo! Search results. We will shorten the description at the complete word nearest to 70 characters, then add an ellipsis (”…”). If you haven’t added short descriptions to your ads by June, your ad quality could be impacted.
• When am I “required” to provide a short description?
Beginning in May, when you create a new ad or modify an existing ad, you will be required to write a short description. We recommend that you add short descriptions to all of your existing ads so that your key messages are presented to potential customers.
• Already have short descriptions for all of your ads?
You don’t need to do anything-these short descriptions will be displayed in Sponsored Search results on Yahoo!

Technorati Tags: Yahoo, Search Marketing, YSM, Ads, Paid Search, Online Marketing, Search, Blog, Ironvine

I passed my Yahoo Ambassador certification exam today.

That completes the current market suite of certifications. Hopefully soon Microsoft comes out with their certification.

If you still need to take the Yahoo test here is a good reference for the character limits on Yahoo.

http://ironvine.com/blog/index.php/archives/yahoo-search-marketing-20-panama-maximum-limits/

Yahoo Pipes is a cool tool that I have been look at over the last couple weeks.

It basically mashes up RSS feeds and combines them to allow you to work with the data however you want, from reading news to programming, flickr, and video.

Here is a link to an example:
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/AHaR2Y242xGwcHpiZFUMqA/?text=ironvine&num=2&_run=1&=Run+Pipe

Big link, but you can create your own and manage it differently.

I think it has some great programming value and web design value for adding content and such to a site. Fresh content daily from multiple resources to give to your readers! SEO Heaven.

Take a look into it, there is clearly possibility and value you can use to optimize a site and stay on top of technology.

Technorati Tags: Yahoo Pipes, Yahoo, Web Design, Programming, Ironvine

Google AdWords Rumor

I hear that Google AdWords has an upcoming release with changes to the way the bid estimator functions. The new bid estimator will include data about how many clicks you will receive or how many you will miss based on your bid and position??

This could be a very helpful tool if it is accurate (right not the bid estimator generally isn’t even close, which is why they are working on it). It could help you find high volume keywords that perform well, or be able to filter out high cost/high traffic keywords from your campaigns to minimize spend.

+++++++++————–+++++++++

Yahoo Panama Woes

Still being frustrated with the current interface, tools, editorial and performance of the new Yahoo Panama.

The traffic seems to be there but it just seems to not convert on the same increase as the traffic. The new ranking model seems to have higher bid costs as well from what I have seen overall.

Yahoo’s interface is certainly “Flashy” (excuse the pun) but it is lacking in very many tools to actually manage the account. Basically if you want to change anything you have to change it one at a time, with multiple clicks involved. If you have huge campaigns, say 100,000+ keywords, it makes the management task difficult to say the least.

Hopefully they will release a tool like AdWords Editor soon…

The editorial process has been the topic of several posts already in the past couple weeks, so I wont go into to much detail. There hasn’t been a lot of change, the errors and messages it kicks back from the large number of keywords that get rejected are pretty vague. There are some bugs in it as well, including no “Edit” button to be able to correct the keyword on several that I have gone in to try and correct manually.

Work around that seems to help: cut and paste the list from the editorial rejections, then submit another bulk upload with those keywords. Apparently the second time it goes through it seems to process more of them. Very labor intensive way of doing it I admit, but when you compare it to going in one at a time, you do save a few minutes if you have more than 25 to do.

Sharpen up those Excel skills, =VLOOKUP is your friend.

Technorati Tags: Google, Yahoo, YSM, AdWords, PPC, Blog, Search Marketing, Paid Search, Online Marketing, Ironvine

Here is a little note that was sent to me about some enhancements for the Yahoo! Search Builder. This is similar to the custom search page you can create with Google AdSense, but you are able to refine it a bit more and have more site specific functionality.

–

Yahoo! has launched enhancements to the Yahoo! Search Builder, further allowing Webmasters and publishers the ability to build and customize their own search engine.

Based on feedback from the community, enhancements include a ‘super narrow’ search box option that will fit most two column blog templates, and a new design to the Search Builder home page, with a section called “Featured Search Builder Sites” that will highlight cool sites and clever implementations of Yahoo! Search Builder.

Additional details can be found on the Yahoo! Search Blog or by visiting the Search Builder homepage at http://builder.search.yahoo.com. If you have any questions or would like to speak with a Yahoo! Spokesperson, please let me know.

Regards,
Fleishman Hillard for Yahoo! Inc.

–

Not sure if Fleishman Hillard is just sending out the communication, or if they are part of the Search Builder program, but thats who sent out the note.

Technorati Tags: Yahoo, Yahoo Search Builder, Search, Web Design, Web Development, Website, Custom Search, Fleishman Hillard, Ironvine

Yahoo New Ranking Model Follow-up Info -
Estimated Clicks per Bid forecasting tool transition (start-over)

With the new model Yahoo is starting the bid placement forecasting tools from scratch in the Yahoo! Search Marketing interface. What this basically means is that the big push they have offered people to get the ad history up and live before Feb 5th, basically starts over today anyway. Or thats what it appears to me, and true for at least some of their account tools.

Important Note on Forecasting

On February 5, we began a seven- to ten-day transition period during which the “Estimated Clicks per Bid” forecasting tool will begin to accumulate data from the new ranking model, after which you can have greater confidence in using this tool. During this period, please use the “Bid Range for Top Positions” information to help guide your bidding decisions. Learn more about the forecasting tools.

Technorati Tags: Yahoo, Yahoo Panama, Yahoo Search Marketing, Panama, Search Marketing, Paid Search, Ironvine

Today the expected new ranking model was launched by Yahoo! Search Marketing (Feb. 5, 2007). As I have talked about in previous posts (Yahoo Search Marketing Upgrade News, Upcoming Changes to Paid Search) the effects of this still have some mystery. Will ad costs go up, down, improve or worsen rankings.

I think my biggest concern right now with Yahoo is their editorial process and requirements. I actually have an email into them right now asking about exactly how strict they are and how to deal with certain issues, like not having the exact keyword or majority of the keyword phrase displayed on the landing page, why they require that you have brand terms in the ad title and description(??), how they expect us to manage, move and change keywords, ads, and adgroups without using the spreadsheet (which is very difficult to set up or manipulate existing keywords).

My guess is that they drew the line on their editorial process to be able to use the ranking model and make it look like an immediate success with strictly functioning ads, not the best performing ones. The usability right now for Yahoo, and the performance vs Google(usability and performance) and even MSN (performance) is pretty low with the new Panama release.

**They need to give advertisers some tools to be able to manage an account before they start mass killing or restricting or modifying keywords, ads, or adgroups.

The advertiser mail notification is posted below.

New Ranking Model Launches Today, February 5, 2007



We’re excited to announce that the new ranking model has launched
today, February 5, 2007, in our U.S. market. The new ranking model is
designed to improve user results through higher quality search ads.
When users engage with these higher quality search ads, advertisers
will receive more interested, valuable potential customers, helping
to drive better results for your business.

As we previously announced, both bid amount and ad quality
now
determine an ad’s rank in search results.
Your bid is the maximum amount that you’re willing to pay when your
ad is clicked. You will never be charged more than this amount.

Your ad’s quality is determined by:

• The ad’s historical performance—determined by its click-through
  rate relative to its position on the page.

• The ad’s expected performance, relative to competing ads displayed
  at the same time—determined by various relevance factors considered
  by Yahoo!’s ranking algorithms.

You can gain an understanding of an ad’s quality by looking at its
quality index.

Example of How Ads may be Ranked
The graphic below helps illustrate a scenario that may result from
this change:

Learn more about the new ranking model. Learn more about the quality index.

Five Things to do to Take Advantage of the New Ranking Model
To take advantage of the new ranking model, you should:

• Include keywords in your ads (use our Insert Keyword feature).
• Choose keywords for each ad group carefully.
• Use ad testing.
• Use Excluded Words to optimize your Advanced match type ads.
• Review your current bids and set a campaign budget to meet your
  business goals.

For more details, please click here.

Important Note on Forecasting
Starting today, February 5, with the roll-out of the new ranking
model, we will offer several tools to use in making bidding
decisions. However, there will be a seven- to ten-day transition
period during which the “Estimated Clicks per Bid” forecasting tool
will begin to accumulate data from the new ranking model in order to
provide more recent historical traffic estimates. After these seven
to ten days, you can have greater confidence in using this tool. In
the meantime, we recommend that you use the “Bid Range for Top
Positions” information to help guide your bidding decisions.

Learn more about the forecasting tools.

~Steve

Technorati Tags: Yahoo, Yahoo Panama, Yahoo Search Marketing, Search Marketing, Paid Search, Online Advertising, SEM, Panama, Ironvine

Here is the latest news about the new ranking model in Yahoo! Search Marketing. They sent out a letter to advertisers with the 5 Key Steps to Take Advantage of the New Ranking Model. You can see my previous comments and opinions about the new model in the post “Upcoming Changes to Paid Search“.

===========================

We previously announced that on February 5, 2007, we are introducing a new ranking model in the U.S. that considers both an ad’s quality and bid amount in determining an ad’s position in search results. It is designed to help you spend less time in bidding wars and more time creating the most relevant, effective ads, which may help drive better results for your business.

To take advantage of our new ranking model, please do the following:

To learn more about the new ranking model, please click here.

Sincerely,

Your Partners at Yahoo Search Marketing

===========================

Technorati Tags: Yahoo!, Yahoo Search Marketing, Search Marketing, Paid Search, Online Marketing, Search, Ironvine

I’m back today after a 3 day business trip to New York. My first time there, unfortunately didn’t get to see much, but got a few good pictures.

Anyhow, there will be a few posts coming up that I have been thinking on and saving up to dish out upon my return.

In this post I wanted to pick on the Yahoo Panama editorial process a little.

First of all I do admit that it is much better than it was pre-Panama, and is still better than MSN. I do find things pretty painful with it still however. Today, as an example, I added about 1000 keywords to an account on Yahoo. Now for whatever reason, the client’s site was being really slow around the same time. So I ended up having about 75 keywords get Declined in the editorial because the pages were taking too long to load. The landing pages do actually work…

Now what do I do? Well I could resubmit them via the bulk, but then I would have to either do the whole sheet again, or one by one pull out the ones that got Declined.

It seems to happen a lot, the pages work but Yahoo isn’t able to spider them for some unknown reason at that time. This isn’t the first or I’m sure the last time I will have issues with the editorial process.

Lots of times it just seems like Yahoo kills keywords for no apparent reason, I’m guessing its because of their spider.

What I would suggest to Yahoo is to add a delay to flagged keywords, but make them active and marked “Pending”. If the spider fails the first time, put it in a 12 or 24 hour queue before you try again and then kill it. That will, or should, give 2 chances for the editorial spider to test a landing page, but not axe it right off the bat.

Technorati Tags: New York, Yahoo, Yahoo Panama, Yahoo Search Marketing, Paid Search, Online Marketing, Keywords, Keyword Creation, Ironvine