Social Media Blog by Michael Brito
Insights into the social web & real
time community engagement
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Just recently I stumbled across this new (not sure how new) search engine Finervista. Basically, Finervista is a search engine that specifically serves up free webinar, webcasts and other online training in the search results. Of course, there is search functionality on the site, but they also have categories i.e. marketing, outsourcing, best practices, IT to name a few; with some high profile names in the search results as webex and Microsoft.
As an online marketer, this intrigues me because Google, Yahoo and MSN own the search market share in the US. How does a new, vertical search engine capture any market share whatsoever? Even with a marketing budget as big as Microsofts, they are still unable to grow their share. Hmmm, I guess we will see how this plays out!
Technorati Tags: online marketing, online marketing blog, vertical search engines, finervista
Just recently, Top Rank Blog put together a comprehensive list of search and social media blogs which they update weekly. I, along with a few of my buddies from HP have also made the list. Most notably is Paul, who blogs over at Seobrien.com. If you want to make the list (which is an awesome back link) I suggest you read the following blurb, taken directly from their site.
I own/maintain several websites dating back to 8 years or so. With some of my sites, like this one, I daily monitor my web stats (unique visitors, referring domains, etc.) I’m obsessed with data! With some of my other sites, I rarely, if ever, look at the actual web site much less the stats. However, the other day when I was bored, I decided to check out the stats of one of my sites that’s about 5 years old and I was blown away when I saw the results.
I remember when I first launched these sites, I optimized the meta tags (well, I actually spammed the heck out of the them, and haven’t changed them since); and I HAVE NOT engaged in any link building activity whatsoever. Google and Yahoo referrals accounted for about 75% of the above visitors.
The conclusion is simple. Aggressive link building and fresh content is not [...]
I transferred my blog to this new domain in September 2006 and I am already gettin’ some love from Google and Yahoo (thanks to my utmost ethical link building techniques of course and my outstanding on-page optimization skillz – jk). For the terms “Online Marketing Blog” and “Internet Marketing Blog” I am on the first page of both engines respectively; right under the master blogger himself, Lee Odden who authors Top Rank Blog; a place where I go daily to learn new things. I do attribute some of this love to Lee since he linked to my blog a few months back (Thanks Lee). Now, let’s keep this in perspective here. Both terms ARE NOT that competitive and only account for roughly 3,000 search queries a month across Google and Yahoo; but hey, one thing about successful SEO is that you start with the less competitive keywords first and then work up [...]
However, this one is somewhat unique. It’s a brand new search engine designed to please every request from the perspective of someone who is at least 50 years old. This steadily growing demographic often feels overwhelmed when they use the “ad infested” Google and Yahoo because they spew out more results than older eyes care to see. Launched earlier this week, Cranky.com is trying to simplify the search results by showing just four websites in the non-advertising section of each page and making the sparser listings more relevant to its target audience. Just the other day, I told my 80 year old grandmother about it, who also uses Yahoo Messenger, and she absolutely loves it. So, if you are close to 50 and use the web allot, I would recommend checking it out.
Technorati Tags: search marketing, search engine marketing, sem, paid search, pay-per-click, search engine, cranky.com, cranky
If you are selling products or services directly from your website, it is imperative to formulate a strategy built around persuading visitors to become customers. Ignoring this simple concept can result in poor conversion rates, lost revenue opportunities and a complete failure in e-commerce effectiveness.
Quick Conversion Statistics
Conversion rates, or the percentage of consumers that actually make a purchase, varies from one website to another. A recent study by Intermarket Online states that the average online consumer conversion rate is 2.7%, and that 62% of merchants have a conversion rate of 2% or less, while 5% have in excess of a 6% conversion rate. A Forrester Research study of 41 online merchants found that conversion rates typically vary from 1% to 4%, with under 2% for 70% of merchants. Amazon and CDNow get 6% to 8% rates.
Online Purchase Decisions
It is true that website traffic is essential, but getting potential customers to [...]
The days of targeting consumers by keywords only are coming to an end. Now search engines, specifically MSN are giving advertisers the ability to target consumers by age, gender various demographics and website behavior. MSN’s behavioral targeting is an effective way to deliver customized/relevant messages to the most desirable and targeted consumers. Based on user search and web surfing behavior, behavioral targeting allows advertisers to reach their target consumer.
Although the concept has been around for several years now as it relates to online banner advertising, it is now becoming a fundamental practice for search marketing as well. In fact, a recent report on Clickz.com, states that behavioral targeting is up roughly sixty percent over the last year, which shows tremendous growth.
The Early Days of Search Marketing
Search engine marketing, often referred to as paid search is based on cost-per-click model (CPC); that is, advertisers only pay when a consumers clicks on [...]
Cool new search engine launched yesterday that allows consumers to search for products by appearance rather than just text. When a user clicks on an image of an item, Like.com will compare that item’s shape; color and texture to millions of other similar images found on the internet and display the best matches. It looks like Like.com is initially focusing on a few shopping categories like handbags, watches, jewelry, watches and shoes; and then allows consumers to purchase directly from Amazon.com.
Some cool, interactive tools that Like.com offers are the following:
An interactive color palette that users can slide to find matches based on color
A slider that allows users to search within a price range
A customization tool that allows users to adjust what is most important in the search results (color, shape and pattern)
A tool that allows users to drag a box over an image to focus the search on that specific [...]
