Archive for March, 2008
Google AudioAds – Reaching Offline Customers
I was editing some of my PPC ads this morning, when I finally took a few 
minutes to read up on this. Google has some compelling points, like “57% of online radio listeners look up items on the web after hearing an audio ad”. Now, Google AudioAds really seem to be aimed at the offline customer, where people can hear your ad whether they’re driving to work, or the gym, or the store, you can still get your message across.
If you do decide to advertise with Google AudioAds, or to recommend a client to do so, do your homework on this one. Google claims you will be able to 
“Showcase your business on over 1,600 terrestrial FM and AM radio stations across the U.S., targeting your [currently offline - probably in their car listening to their iPod or standing in line at Starbucks talking on their cellphone, hmmm?] customers on “top ten” stations in all 25 of the most popular US markets.”
Now, granted, these AudioAds do sound very professional, and I can wrap my mind around this ‘potentially’ working for SEM. Listen for yourself, take a minute and listen to some of these already local AudioAds already playing.
How Do You Get Your Logo Next To Your URL?
I have always wanted to know how you make a favicon (icon) appear next to your url, and I finally figured it out. While at the Search Marketing Expo in California last week, this was another fun little tid bit they encouraged to brand yourself a little, so I decided to do it myself!
Below are the steps I followed. Pretty easy to do, enjoy!
(These instructions are mainly for WordPress blogs)
- Choose your image, logo or whatever you want to use as an icon.
- Upload the image into a favicon editor, I used this one.
- You will be asked to crop this image, unless you can create your own 16×16 pixel image.
- Save the finished favicon to your desktop, and make sure you keep the format to the default favicon.ico file name, do not re-name it.
- Clear your WP and browser cache.
- Next, place your favicon.ico file inside your theme folder (for example: wp-content/themes/default/) then add this line to your header.php folder:
<link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”<?php bloginfo(‘template_directory’); ?>/favicon.ico” />
Be sure to add it somewhere within the <head></head> section.
- Refresh your browser, done!
New Search Box Appearing Under SiteLinks?
Take a look at this picture. Have you guys seen this? On several large websites, there appears a search box under the SERP’s, with the sitelinks. I have been following a forum post over at WebmasterWorld on this subject. If you hear any more about this, please let me know, my curiosity is killing me!
Should I Have A Stand Alone Blog? Sub-Domain, Sub-Folder?
There was a lively discussion last week at SMX discussing whether a blog should be a stand alone like ours www.redvwbus.com, Sub-domain http://blog.mysite.com, or a sub-folder like http://mysite.com/blog.com. What do you think? Can this split your link juice or link equity? Would it be best to have a funky wacko blog name, or integrate your corporate feel. Well why don’t you tune in to this 5 minute video and listen in as some of the top bloggers in the country answer this question.
The Toys Of SMX!
To me this was the prize possession of the SMX Exhibit hall…..One PHAT Google Pen! Not even Danny Sullivan or Tamar Weinberg got one of these primo schwag toys! See what they got here, but look what I got below!
Got A Business? Get Listed In Local Search Engines, and Yelp!
While attending a track at SMX last week, there was a fantastic panel discussing how important local search will be this year. A few of the highlights are listed below;
Layoffs for ASK.com! – Is ASK.com Panicky?
Today there was some startling news to some, but obvious news to others. Ask.com announced through the associated press, that they are laying off about 40 employee’s, and shifting their focus by creating a women’s site. Yes, a women’s site! They want to abandon their attempt to compete with Google, and try to compete in a niche area or market, that is married women seeking “management” in their lives. What this exactly means is not clear to me, but hey, we’ll see what they come up with. They have initially said the will focus on their core original focus, kids stuff, hobies, sharing recipes and more. Personally, I think it’s a great move because Ask.com has a fantastic product, but just has not caught on as a search engince contender, however if they utilize their genious of their search engine in this arena, I think they could easliy dominate this niche market….Women!
Read the entire AP article here.
Power Of Multiple Websites Under One Business
One of my clients followed up on some advice I gave, actually it was a combined effort but one that I learned from my colleague at Hippo Internet Marketing. The advice was to create multiple web sites each with a different focus in the furnishings world. You see his priority business or website has been his local Budget Blinds site here in Wilmington, NC selling blinds and window treatments.
Because of competition, and lack of attention given to other features and services he offers, we decided to create 5 additional sites in addition to the main Budget Blinds site, to accommodate other niche areas of his business, drapery, awnings, closet systems, and shutters.
The great thing about this is he can pool the link equity (juice) of each of these sites, make custom landing pages, title tags, meta tags, and really focus hard on these topics. All of this equals a mini “hub” if you will, and he could potentially dominate the local search results for the respective keywords and or services. Below are the sites he made, and the business they offer, remember they all link to each other….talk about excellent cross marketing!
Move Over FireFox? IE 7Pro Has You Covered
1. Double click to close tab.
2. Open new tab from address bar.
3. Enable/disable tab browse history manager.
4. Enable/disable crash recovery
5. Move the IE menu bar above the address bar
6. Hide search bar.
7. Modify the maxium number of parallel connections to the web server.
8. Select the external program to view page source
What Are “Paid” Links?
Well, this has been a much “heated” debate lately, and it continued on at SMX this past week. Matt Cutts came out and basically told us in the audience that if you are paying for a link, and that link has no relevance to your site, link equity will not flow or be passed onto you. Simply put, if that link has no benefit to the user, then watch out.
Now there was a question that was asked about this scenario:
What if you want to be part of a chapter, association or the like that directly relates to your site, is a good fit, they are a respected and trusted site, but require you to pay them to be a part of their chapter, association etc.. and as part of the “deal”, they put a link on their site naming you as a member? Well, they all agreed this is good and fine. So everyone, don’t be afraid to buy links from sites that you feel will give the end user a good experience.
Nice to hear.
