Posted on: June 10, 2010 by Search Master Steve
Hey guys! Search Master Steve here, Syzlak is far too busy celebrating the recent Stanley Cup victory by the Chicago Blackhawks, so I’m here to fill in.
Today, we’re going to delve into some great AdCenter features that you’ll probably all want to be very aware of as you transfer all your adverts to AdCenter in the next months. In case you forgot, Bing is now Yahoo, so you’ll want to get your ducks in a row to capture all that sweet AltaVista traffic.
AdCenter’s 3 Strongest Features
Geo-Targeting
Right from the bat, we’re targeting your geo in AdCenter. Let’s go through the steps. When you sign up an account from the US, we’ll walk you through creating your ad, specifying your budget, bids, etc. Just like Google.
Then, instead of setting you up with your ads targeted to North America, we’ll go ahead and target your ads to the world for ya.
True Geo-Targeting right when you setup an account. Only from AdCenter.
Keyword Insertion
We all know that keyword insertion, or dynamic titles, or whatever you call them (parameters? what?!), are vital part of every campaign’s ad copy. Well don’t worry, at AdCenter we’ve made sure that Keyword Insertion works just as it does on Google and Yahoo.
Simply put {keyword:xxx} into your ad, and we’ll insert your keyword if it fits within our character limits. Additionally, you can follow Google’s keyword capitalization standards and use {KeyWord:xxx} or {KEYWORD:xxx}, but we won’t follow their command and formatting.
At AdCenter we assume that you’ve created your keywords with the capitalization you’d like to use, so we won’t bother you with any other option. We’ll keep your keywords in lower case if that’s how you entered them.
Easy Tracking Integration with Google Analytics
Here’s the best feature yet. Say you use Google Analytics and want to see which keywords your visitors used to find your ad, click through, and buy your product.
You’re in luck!
With AdCenter we’ll let you use a standard variable for your ads that will cover all keywords used to see your ad. By using the {QueryString}…or, wait…{OrderItemID}, no no no, {keyword}, well, one of those probably works…anyway, plop that bitch in your tracking URL, and behold!!!!!
In Google Analytics you’ll see data for the keyword {querystring}, {keyword}, or {orderitemid} depending on which one of those you decided was the best. None of them will show you your keyword…we don’t know how to do that yet. We’re working on it, we’re thinking that it might take a couple years, though.
In the end, how’s that going to help you track your hits anyway?! You should just use AdCenter’s Analytics Package – seen below.
AdCenter Analytics Package
As you can see, AdCenter really has the user in mind, and we can’t wait to take all your money in the next couple of months.
Love,
Steve
Posted on: May 5, 2009 by Syzlak
So for the past 2 months or so Google has been inserting their map based local listings (affectionately referred to as the 10 Pack) into broad search results. Thus, when a non-geographically targeted search was used or even when a user was not logged in, Google would show local results regardless (irregardless for you Steph). While this was certainly helpful for the user, it has become a bit of a headache for the SEO, the business owner and the online marketing director. Today, a top 5 listing does not hold the weight it once did, because for the average user positions 4-10 are now below the fold. While this is a great opportunity for local businesses to thrive, (and in today’s horrendous economic climate, I’m actually a fan of this) it makes it that much harder for the nationwide business to succeed.
Unfortunately, it would appear that Google may have gone one step further.
This morning I checked in on my allergy doctor’s website. He’d recently asked me for a few tips to increase his search rank. I was pleased to see his site in the #2 position on Google for the very broad term: allergy clinic. I was so pleased that I asked the good Hack to perform the search and bask in my pride and glory. His response?
i see some sketchy looking allergy doc at number 5
What the hell?
Undaunted, I ask my old friend Luke to give me a third set of eyes on the situation. He too saw the listing in the 5th position. So, what was going on?
Luke lives in Bend, Hack lives in the nether regions of my mind, neither of them live in Portland. Where does Google draw the “local dividing line?” Is it DMA restricted? If I lived 10 miles away, would it be the same? Was Google honestly giving an organic boost to a local listing based on my location? Yes. In fact, Luke’s company had been noticing this of late as well and even had a rather serious sounding meeting to discuss it. He’d pointed out that because of this, “running reports geographic locations in the U.S. is no longer accurate” and that it even applies “when using google.kr, google.fr, etc.”
Fantastic.
Google has just pushed down organic rankings for even more nationwide companies. It’s one thing to have the 10 Pack show up in the 4th position, but giving local companies organic precedence means that many nationwide companies will fall even further below the fold…perhaps even to the dreaded second page of results.
While this isn’t bad for the local business that wants local customers, it does pose an interesting problem for the semi-local business – the local business that wants outside customers. At the web development agency where I work, one of our clients is Legend Homes, they’re a Portland home builder that focuses on green-built homes. So, naturally we try to target Portland and Oregon keywords, but also “green” keywords. In addition, they are looking at selling homes to people who are moving to the area, not necessarily living in the area. With the vast amount of competition in the housing market (real estate, home builders, private sellers, etc), it’s already a challenge to establish solid footing with a lot of these keywords. Now, throw in the fact that listings will appear differently outside of any given location, and you’ll see the problem with Google’s new approach to local search.
Posted on: July 28, 2008 by Syzlak
Time for yet another Google rival to enter the arena. This is all a bit funny sometimes. Think about it, we have 2 major search engines that can’t figure out a way to compete with Google already. One’s always trying to buy the other, the other’s working with Google not to get bought…the arena’s already full.
Former Googler Anna Patterson disagrees.
Patterson has recently launched Cuil – a new search engine that displays results in a magazine layout. Apparently, Cuil is going to return results based upon the “actual content” of a given page.
Ok.
In my preliminary searches, Cuil has not impressed me. I think it’s great to have more competition in the search engine world, and I honestly would welcome an upstart on to the scene. However, this engine just doesn’t do it for me. The idea behind a magazine layout is kinda cool, unfortunately the pictures that are interspersed with the results ruin the experience. Since Cuil displays pictures next to a result, I assume that the picture is somehow tied to that page-in reality it’s just different media into one big SERP.
Is the layout the appeal? To me, it seems confused. I think SERPs should be analytical; give me my results ranked on a page and differentiated by file type. Pages in one result, pics in another, videos in the next. If you have to put them on one page, try to do it like A9 or Ask…oh wait, they aren’t really doing so well are they?
I think Cuil could be competitive if they stop trying to fool me into thinking that I’m reading the newspaper. People understand that the web is not a magazine, and I believe they want results to be ranked. For that matter, I think that most of the time (studies prove this) people just want one result. In that case, allow me to promote the Search Engine Highlander. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Posted on: March 5, 2008 by Syzlak
Except for a few people from Ask, they aren’t working at all…
Lord, I’m busy. By the next time I post, I’ll have recorded the bulk of my band’s next album, gone to SearchFest ‘08 (tagline: Don’t Hesitate to be Great in 08!!) and worked like a dog in between.
So, shit, what’s been going on lately? Ask is dead? Again? That’s sad to me, I’ve always enjoyed the hope of competition in the search field, and I thought Ask was getting better. I think that it’s too hard today to battle the omnipresent Google. I mean Google is now a verb for fuck’s sake!!! How could Ask ever compete with that?
Other news… (yes, I’m doing a lame editorial recap of the last few weeks in order to make up for the fact that I didn’t do a like-like link post)
SMX West happened last week. Did you go? No? Neither did I. Do you remember how we were forced to hear about all the great parties, cool contacts and fantastic information that we were missing out on? Yeah, me too. It’s a great time to be alive. If you missed out on SMX West, check out this great piece by Streko, it more or less sums up the existence of those of us that have to stay behind in order to keep the company running.
Not at all search related, I’ve added one of my favorite sites to the blogroll, The Strategic Retreat. Good post on there today…
Ok…there’s a meeting happening in my office, so I’ve lost my train of thought. Anyway, if you’re going to be at SearchFest ‘08 come find me. I currently have a Yacht Rock-esque haircut, but I assure you I won’t be dressed the part. I’ll be running around and volunteering, whilst trying to update via Twitter and posting right here on SyzlakSEM. Sadly, I won’t be able to hang with the SEOHack 
as he’ll be at home, sulking, drunk and alone. That is, if you don’t count liquor and guns as friends.
All right, done rambling. See ya in a week or so!
Posted on: February 22, 2008 by Syzlak
I’ve been sick all week, I’m behind on work and there’s nothing much to write about…
oh, except for this
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Hey guys! Search Master Steve here, Syzlak is far too busy celebrating the recent Stanley Cup victory by the Chicago Blackhawks, so I’m here to fill in.
