That said, I wanted to mention how I sneakily included some SEO conversion testing into the presentation, particularly because the test is rather unusual as far as I know, and requires a higher level of dedicated SEO knowledge than I think it fair to attribute to most of the eMetrics attendees. I actually don’t know of anyone else who has tried it – and in typical test fashion, I have repeated the test three times, one is running currently, and the results of the first 2 were highly similar – significantly so in boosting both SEO traffic (I’m assuming SERP CTR) and SEO unit conversion rates.

Data Research Leading to Hypothesis (1):
PPC drives a tremendous amount of traffic during offers and campaign periods, and SEO traffic appears to be somewhat cannibalised. Can we alleviate PPC costs by ensuring that the SEO results show the offer for the duration of the campaign?

Hypothesis (1):
By reflecting the campaign offer in the SEO title tag results we will: increase SEO traffic and decrease campaign attributable PPC costs, without negatively impacting total forecasted search sales.

Test 1: 4-6 Week Duration (Peak Season):
What We Did:
~ We swapped out the original title tag with one reflecting the website wide $40 off offer (20% off).
~ We did not change the meta-description wanting to minimize the potential impact of controllable variables.
~ We pushed the changes and the xml sitemap (Google) the day the campaign went live.
~ We reversed the change a few days ahead of campaign-end based on our known/anticipated crawl rate – with a safe confidence interval – with the assumption that the page would be recrawled and indexed with the original title tag before the campaign ended. (Our timing was well researched and worked out fine).
~ We work in a CMS, so those types of changes are very easy to make considering it is a large corporate environment (anyone who has worked in such an environment will know the types of challenges and time constraints inherent to making quick changes to a site).

IMAGE – SEO Test 1: Title Conversion Testing (sorry, wp is being ridonkulous this evening – just click your ‘back’ button to get back here!)

Results:
~ SEO traffic increased just over 100%
~ SEO units sold increased 150%
~ PPC traffic and units cannibalized slightly, but the net was highly positive.

Post-test Analysis:
~ While the SEO test was underway, we also ran supportive/acquisition-based PPC adcopy tests for the duration of the campaign and found that ‘20% off’ had a higher CTR and conversion rate than the ‘$40 off’ messaging, so we decided to apply that to the next SEO test.
~ With such a strong result for the title only change test, we decided to try changing both the title and the meta-description for the next test.
~ Once again, the test would occur during a website wide promotional offer period, so we waited…

Test 2: 5-7 Week Duration (Off-peak):

Hypothesis (2):
By reflecting the campaign offer in the SEO meta-description AND title tag results we will: increase SEO traffic and decrease campaign attributable PPC costs, while positively impacting total forecasted search sales.

What we did:
We swapped out the original title tag and meta-description with one reflecting the website wide 20% off offer. We followed the same process for publishing, pushing xml sitemaps, and reversal. Again our timing was well within required/predicted limits.

IMAGE – SEO Test 2: Title + Meta-description Conversion Testing

Results:
~ SEO traffic increased just over 50%
~ SEO units sold increased 90%
~ PPC traffic and units for this test were not impacted significanty in either direction. A difference to both pre-seo-tesiing, and test-1 results.

Post-test Analysis:
~ The PPC adcopy test was once again run in conjunction with the SEO test and netted the same results, directionally this time. We are comfortable with continuing to run PPC tests during promotional periods, and to continue to use % offers for SEO results until or unless we see significant changes in PPC test data.
~ We were unconvinced of the impact of the meta-description change, so we will retest.
~ We are currently running a 3rd test with yet another copy variable change – ‘>’ instead of ‘|’ in the title tag. Campaign is still live and test is still running. (The arrow vs pipe test is being run elsewhere as well, results will be analysed separately, and as a whole.)

Hypothesis (3):
By reflecting the campaign offer in the SEO meta-description and title tag results we will: increase SEO traffic and decrease campaign attributable PPC costs, while positively impacting total forecasted search sales – repeating test 2 results.

IMAGE – Third/Current Test is this….

Enjoy! And let me know if you have any questions.

@lauracallow

Please note: These tests refer to only one of our product pages, and result for other products/pages or offerings may be different for numerous reasons. The content on our primary destination page for these tests changed very little as the product page is a core SEO resource. Offer information was added while other content remained standard. We (SEO) took a risk on losing some generic term rankings (we test those over longer periods), but as the test was for such a short period of time, we assumed the impact to converting traffic would be minimal. Our intent was to make first-use of the organics to support web based initiatives to ensure that search engines users would see the same results in both the paid and organic results for as long as we could realistically maintain them risk and liability free. While it is understood that organic results may not always lead you to the page or information you want, as a senior marketing manager for a corporate entitity with values including ‘Integrity Without Compromise’, and ‘Delight Customers’, I do not take chances that may negatively impact our user’s experience on the search engines, or secondarily, during their first-experience with our brand.

Depending on what you sell, there are numerous affecting variables. But there are a few tips that work for any ecommerce business.

1. Retention is easier and cheaper than acquisition, so spend equitably on the two where possible if your retention market warrants the spend. Don’t ignore either regardless of how established or un-established you are in the online space.

2. Loyalty programs and discounts are what return visitors want, make them easy to find and honour them diligently.

3. Easy login for returning members with member only discounts and bonus offers is a great way to improve your retention and word of mouth/social spread for acquisition purposes.

4. Simple, minimal registration for new customers with an intro discount for joining is a great way to get those neutrals into the fold.

5. Peer/customer reviews and ratings are highly instrumental in both clinching a sale and directing folks to your best selling products.

6. Intro discounts with clear, easy money back guarantee terms and conditions that don’t take forever to read are effective in converting new time buyers.

7. Easy, timely cost effective shipping options are great for all buyers, especially if your product can also be bought in store.

8. If your product can be bought in store, watch your online vs. offline sales pricing targets and methodology. Shoppers do research, and they aren’t stupid.

9. If you can apply easy tracking numbers and delivery scheduling to your shipping that doesn’t cost you a fortune, it is a bonus security for your online buyers – especially for international shipments.

10. Automatic, personalized follow up ‘did you receive your product and what do you think of it?’ emails may garner you great testimonials/reviews as well as enhance your netpromoter scores.

@lauracallow

As a stand-alone practice in the online world, eye-tracking studies are relatively useless for a number of reasons:

1. The messaging influences what people look for and at. A very clear example that involved a user study can be seen in the images below (from this great resource).

ORGINAL IMAGE

Another example may be found innocently enough in your PPC campaigns.

• If the messaging in your adcopy mentions a ‘10% discount for 1^st time buyers’, users who click through to your landing page will be looking for that 10% discount message and will focus on it. However, if your adcopy is focusing on a different value proposition; e.g. ‘98% of customers repurchase. Read their reviews & find out why!’ – you may very well see that the message is impacting the eye tracking heat-map with the larger/more concentrated area of focus being first the reviews, and second the discount.

2. The eye tracking heat map alone cannot tell you about actual interaction.

Did the reviews sell more users? Did the 10% discount clinch the deal? Even if both areas of the page have equal ‘heat’ or interest, and even if both have their own near-vicinity ‘buy now’ button with the same amount of ‘heat’ – which message actually resulted in the most conversions, if any?

You need a more robust program to work in conjunction with eye-tracking heat maps to measure interaction – like that offered by Crazy Egg and Omniture. Images below are courtesy of www.crazyegg.com.

HEAT MAP

OVERLAY

The eye-tracking heat map is interesting, but the interactive overlay is far more useful and actionable from a usability measurement and refinement point of view in my experience. (I can’t use work examples in this blog but I can say that this info is bang on the money in my personal opinion.)

3. Eye tracking heat maps appear to imply that if there’s no heat no one saw it. People focus on what is most important to them. They scan and they use their peripheral vision.

Just because the ‘point-of-gaze’ does not focus on a message or an image does not mean it wasn’t seen, nor that it played no part in the final purchase decision.

4. Eye tracking heat maps imply that we are more attracted to and engaged emotionally with the area with the most ‘heat’. But areas of ‘heat’ can in turn be affected by a number of other factors; background colour, size of image or text, placement of the image or text and a host of other factors…

…or you’re simply more attracted to Crook.

Eye tracking heat maps do help us to realign our thinking. How great would it be if we could marry our areas of greatest visual appeal with our most effective areas and types of interaction and conversion; best page position, best call to action, best preceding and post-focus area copy and imagery, best driving messages, best supportive peripherally designed collateral… etc.

Eye tracking was a revolutionary way to view how your customers were viewing your pages, but it’s not enough. It’s good to know, but it’s not going to get you the conversions or click throughs to your cart that you want  – not on its own. It’s not going to show you how to optimize your user experience either – not on its own. It has a place in your marketing toolkit for sure – but not on its own…

 (With grateful thanks to Harry Brignull’s ‘What You Need to Know About Eye-Tracking’)  

@lauracallow with thanks to Harry Brignull @harrybr

The process that this went through consists of far more than I can do justice to here, but I wanted to share some really cool learnings with you all.

First: If you have a home page, don’t be unwilling to change it if the VOC warrants such a change.

Second: Make sure you listen to your customers. This can take the form of customer reviews, feedback through the socnets, usability studies and numerous other forms. Your budget and existing level of engagement may dictate your initial approach.

Third: Don’t keep changing your home page willy-nilly as that will confuse your users, and if you do change it, make sure you keep your primary brand message as consistent as possible.

Fourth: Ensure you approach any redesign, especially a VOC driven redesign with clear objectives based on your predetermined KPI. In this case a primary objective was to provide a much clearer ‘decision point’ to facilitate the navigation of first time users to their true product of choice, and…

Fifth: Facilitate their optimal engagement path, leading to a more streamlined and facilitated conversion path.

Here was the challenge and the result along with VOC feedback:

1. The original home page was very Online Product focused, not a bad thing, but not beneficial to the numerous CD/download customers

• “Home page was sneaky in that it wasn’t clear Intuit is directing people to the online tax returns.”
• “Ended up in the preparation of a return online which is not what I wanted.”
• “The download version of QuickTax I was looking for was not immediately apparent as an option, though I did later find it at the bottom of the page.”

2. The XD (experience design), usability, marketing and copy messaging folks came up with this new home page

The VOC now tells a NEW story

• “The homepage made my selection easy. The options were straight forward.”
• “Clear information on the opening page.”
• “Easy site to navigate and purchase download software.”

The Analytics Results in a Nutshell

• The new design achieved what it set out to do for desktop sales increasing them by 17% with immediate effect, with no negative impact on online sales.
• The site has since experienced a 14% increase in task completion

Lance (who spear-headed the project) had 3 Key-insights for Take-away:

1. What the business wants isn’t always good for the customer
2. Listening to customers can change how the business thinks
3. Behavioural and attitudinal data are the judge and jury in the court of expert opinion

Follow QuickTax and me on Twitter!

Disclaimer: nothing I say here may or should be attached to any employer, current or previous. This is my personal blog. The views expressed on this page are mine alone and not those of my employer.

• ‘A recession is when your neighbor loses his job, and a depression is when you lose your job’

It ain’t sounding so funny these days…

But wait. It’s not that bad for search marketers, depending on how the industry deals with it as a whole, and how independent practitioners and companies deal with the current economic climate on a micro level.

From a business perspective:

Traditionally, marketing budgets are cut during a recession. But search marketing is not traditional marketing.

Search marketing is basically virtual point of sale display marketing, but far more relevant and targeted:

• PPC enables an ad to be displayed for the exact term a consumer is utilizing to search for a product, service or information at the exact time of interest.
• Efficient SEO ensures a businesses visibility on its brand name in the search engines, and its visibility on highly relevant and targeted converting phrases which are of personal interest to their target market, particularly if they are geo-targeted.

Even if businesses stop or cut-back on advertising on TV and radio or in print, many already have a web site. This is the time for them to maximize their internet exposure.

People still need goods and services in a recession. Mayhap not as many as they would like to have, but wants and needs are very different animals. If people are strapped for cash, if filling their car is becoming a burden, if their job situation means they need to sell their car, if they are at home due to job loss, the fact is that for reasons of both necessity and time to kill they may very well be online a lot more. If they are, they are (apart from fluff internet use) most likely going to be looking for certain goods and services they can purchase online and have delivered via the postal service.

What is it we do again? Bingo…

And we’re not the only ones that know it. While SEO is still a mystery for many, its use, benefits and potential profitability in terms of ROI are becoming more and more well known:

• According to research supplied by PRstore early this month, more than 25 percent of new orders from their 40+ markets nationwide are for website design, and sales of related products, such as search engine optimization (SEO), are also up. ¹

Apart from the obvious benefits of being able to search for a product or service as well as related reviews online which save time and money in terms of opportunity cost and actual transaction costs, there is also the issue of immediate gratification:

• When people are stressed about money and concerned about their next pay check, the impulse-buy phenomenon in almost all types of purchases (apart from luxury purchases) is heightened. If a consumer knows they actually need something but may not be able to pay for it next month or the month after, they are in many cases more likely to purchase it as soon as possible with the cash they do have to off-set the possibility or likelihood that they may not be able to do so in the coming months.

While this is not a great outlook for the consumer, it does offer a great deal of fodder for effective SEM practitioners who are targeting the right words, with usable targeted landing pages that offer a good user experience, support and great returns policies; both from a PPC and an organic search perspective.

The impulse-buy behavior doesn’t stop after month one – people continually ‘need things’ in our consumer society, and if money is short they are more likely to purchase immediately they have the cash if they perceive the purchase to be necessity. A new dish-washer is certainly not a ‘necessity’ in general economic terms, but I know few housewives in middle class America who wouldn’t consider it to be so if their old one packed up. This is not a commentary of our society, and personally with three kids under 8, a fulltime job and a blog I love, my dishwasher, my washing machine and my tumble dryer are pretty darn necessary – while we can afford them… There is no dichotomy in that statement; if I had to choose between ‘extras’ for the kids in my weekly shopping bill or getting a new washing machine after 3 months, I’d get the washer – no contest. Maybe not my perfect washer, but it would sure be good enough to last me a year with the warranty. My mind-set may not be perfect, it may be warped by our society, but it’s what I grew up with. If I had to start washing by hand for some reason, I’d do it – right now I don’t. And yes, I recycle.

While it is true that people tend to focus on saving and conserving money during an economic downturn, saving behavior is greatly influenced by their levels of consumer confidence in the economy; and consumer confidence is fed by business confidence.

If businesses shore up, cut back on inventory holdings, slash prices and go belly-up, consumers get the willies and save harder. Most businesses are price takers, so it’s up to the industries to get together and keep themselves solvent by forming price strategy and inventory (supplier) agreements. If they can effectively do this, appease the consumer by enabling purchase with discounts, but upholding inventory levels within reason, not only is their industry more likely to survive, but the consumer confidence in their market will increase, as will the consumers independant incremental appreciation of economic stability.

The problem with a credit crunch is that it feeds right down to a supplier level. The raw materials suppliers can’t get the bucks on a monthly basis to purchase the inventory they need to make the products their manufacturers or retailers need; or the interest rate is prohibitively high and they are limited due to cost. The lack of supply of these ‘raw’ materials causes a shortage for the retailers. Consumers see a shortage of goods and panic. These shortages in the business sphere can usually work themselves out in a few months, the problem is that the precipitate consumer panic creates a tidal wave of concern that is usually at least 50% unfounded, and that in turn knocks back on the businesses who, after severe shortages, suddenly have (despite a shortage of goods in a normal market) an excess of supply as consumers aren’t buying… they cut purchases from the suppliers, who are already struggling with credit and interest rate problems, compounding the suppliers issues as they try to pay for what they owe, and the suppliers may go bang… It ain’t no fun being a first-point supplier in a recession, which is why they are so very cautious. And that is the vicious cycle in a (totally blase) nut-shell… It’s not necessary, but it is a fact – mob mentality rules in a recession… Industries, businesses, households and individuals need to think for themselves.

Sorry, got side-tracked…

Businesses need to market their goods, especially in a recession – assuming you aren’t Ferrari… If you are, you shouldn’t be too bugged by the recession anyway – if someone has the money to buy your vehicle, they are unlikely to be hit too hard, unless they were invested in AIG…There’s always the exceptions to the rule, eh? But the economy is not ruled by the stock market; it is influenced by it to a great extent… but wall street in many cases and to a great degree doesn’t impact on the SMEs for many months… the collapse of banks is an entirely different story.

I don’t live in the states, but I agree with Trump’s statement that this may well be a cleansing – and in my view; about time… but that statement of mine is entirely economically biased, and as a wife, mother and employee – my heart goes out to the American people. I will say as an ex-economist I don’t think it’s going to be all that bad, and give it 9 months, the DJ will be back up past the 11.5K mark and employment will be above current levels. Prove me wrong I hope you do.

Laura’s SEMI-thought Conclusion:

Here’s a random thought…if SEMPO, SES, SMX etc were to contact all registered members and do a membership drive to boost numbers, and then band together to actually target mass audience portals including TV, radio and the internet promoting SEM services, it would be in the interest of the industry as a whole.

If registered members were allowed to provide geo-targeted hourly rates on specific web portals hosted by these ‘authority sites’  for specific services in a transparent manner, it might not only clear up some of the mystique, but also serve to drive demand for the services we provide as a whole.

I wish I had the money to start a portal service for SEM services on a geo-targeted basis around North America, facilitated by some overt advertising to businesses on a mass level. I don’t, but I think it would work, and I hope it happens.

This is a totally un-thought out thought – but I think further thought (thought over-load) would grant it both merit and substance… this is just a blog post. If I got you err.. thinking, I did my job. Thanks so much for reading.

^{1. PRstore (HitSearch Ltd)}

The SEM Canada Conference has been postponed until October of next year for the following reasons:

1. We are in final talks with a new corporate sponsor who will enable us to really make the SEM Canada series world-class. Details will be forthcoming within the next 6-8 weeks

2. We did not think anyone would necessarily want to come to a rescheduled conference in winter at -40’C – so that rules out everything until Spring

3. In Spring we hit the SES (Search Engine Strategies) New York & Toronto, and SMX (Search Marketing Expo) Advanced and other conferences, and we are not planning on competing for market share

4. In summer everyone is on holiday, or already going to SES San Jose

5.  …hence October 2009… It will come around a lot faster than you think. It feels like yesterday that I was at last year’s SES San Jose, and it’s nearly a year… I’m sayin’

By no means are we giving up on SEM in Canada, or on hosting a fantastic conference in Calgary!… But a few things have recently come up that are simply far too good for us to ignore. Basically, we would be total idiots if we did. We’ll have more news within the next 2 months for everyone.

I’m going to close this post with a copy of an article of mine that was published in the summer print issue of the fantastic search magazine ‘Search Marketing Standard’. If you don’t subscribe, I highly recommend you do.

SEARCH MARKETING IN CANADA: A STATE OF CONFUSION

Search marketing in Canada is not exactly booming. SEMPO Canada says that Canadian businesses simply “do not get search marketing”.

They conducted a survey in January asking Canadian search based businesses to provide their input in an attempt to understand why this is so. Three days before the survey closed, only 60 companies Canada-wide had responded.

This is very disillusioning as there are thousands of SEO/SEM companies throughout Canada, and even more agencies who offer search marketing as part of their service offering. Google alone returns over 170 results for the highly targeted search on ‘allinurl:seo company Toronto’.

The question is: Why the lack of interest?

STATISTICS: Canada’s Online Population

To further confound search marketers in Canada there’s the fact that 72% of Canadians are online compared to 71% in the US.

While I realize that 71% of the US equates to 10x as many people, there are two clear opportunities this data provides for companies doing business north of the border:

1. There are 24 million people online in Canada. This online population is a significant market when you consider that Toronto, the most populated Canadian city, has in comparison only 5 million people. The opportunities for increasing national market share, exposure, and sales/leads are real and viable.

2. 88% of Canadian households have high-speed internet access. This is currently the ninth highest level of broadband penetration by country in the world. People with broadband connectivity are usually internet savvy; they are more likely to bank online, research online, search online, and purchase online.

STATISTICS: Behavior of Canada’s Online Population and Insights

If we consider comScore’s February data on ‘Top Ranking Canadian Sites’ we can gain some interesting insights into the state of search from the consumer’s perspective:

• In February, 94% of online Canadians interacted with Google and Microsoft sites, while 67% visited Yahoo! sites. Canadians are searching online.

• Ebay, Amazon, and Yellow Pages all received visits from 33% of the online population or more. 33% of online Canadians visited electronics goods websites, 27% downloaded e-cards, 20% visited a gift/flower web sites. Canadians are looking to buy and are buying online.

PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that online ad-spend* will grow faster in Canada than anywhere else in the world over the next 5 years for two primary reasons:

1. high broadband penetration

2. lower online market saturation

*[It is important to note that while online ad spend figures traditionally include paid search data, they do not include spend on SEO].

Insights: The data consistently reiterates the massive opportunities within the Canadian online marketplace, and yet businesses in-country remain very slow to consider search engine marketing as a viable opportunity.

*EDIT* NEW DATA:

• Only 8 % of private sector companies in Canada sell goods or services online

• That 8% sold S58billion worth of goods and services online last year – that’s up 25% on 2006

Canada Remains Unconvinced. Why?

My opinion is that it simply boils down to a lack of commercial education. To further explore this point I’ll look briefly at both the US and the UK, and follow with a more targeted look at Canada:

• SEO is booming in the UK (61 million people on an island 3x smaller than Newfoundland, and smaller than the state of Michigan). Why? Competition is enormously fierce. Word of mouth and knowledge spread along with the need to be on the cusp of new technology and marketing, whatever that may mean, is of paramount importance to the success of businesses.

The UK has numerous advertising, marketing, search based, technology and other conferences throughout the year and it’s no big deal to get to one as nothing is more than a days drive away (depending on traffic congestion). It is also relatively cost effective, and not terribly time consuming, to nip over the channel for a day or two to attend the Madrid SMX show, or the Paris SES show, or numerous other European and Asian search marketing conferences.

• The US is the home of the search marketing conference. Between SMX, SES and Pubcon there are 12+ dedicated search marketing conferences alone in the US, to say nothing of the other marketing conferences that mention SEM regularly in their session lineups.

People know people, people meet people, the conferences are spread all around the US and the search community is growing constantly. Conference attendance and knowledge are increasing as both businesses and service agencies learn more from the experts. As a result these businesses and agencies (on behalf of their clients) are consistently and increasingly implementing search strategies effectively. They are seeing increases in exposure, conversion rates and ROI. The cycle continues to gain momentum, and search marketing continues to grow in stature and acceptance as a viable opportunity for channeling hard earned advertising dollars.

We’ve looked at the UK and the US; let’s take a peek at Canada:

• It is nearly 4 million square miles in size (42x the size of the UK and 460,000 square miles larger than the US).
• It has the equivalent of 10% of the population of the US, and 20% of the population of the UK.
• It has in the past had only one major search conference per annum – SES Toronto.

How Does This Data Affect Canadian Businesses?

If they are even aware of search marketing (which is less likely than either of the other two countries due to immense dilution over space and time) they have traditionally had only one significant educational seminar in one city in a massive country each year.

There does not appear to be any national push in the agency or marketing world towards gaining knowledge about SEM. As such, businesses have not yet felt the need to explore the field more thoroughly on their own behalf. It is a fact that many of the larger more competitive and thus benchmarking businesses are tied to agencies. While numerous agencies offer SEM services, they do not push them to the fore as the fires of interest on the client side have not yet been lit.

What Does It All Mean For Canadian SEM (SEO and Paid Search) Agencies and Providers?

Educate your clients. Join SEMPO and other search based driving forces to understand the state of the search marketing interest in Canada. Find out about all applicable search marketing conferences and go. Take your clients, blog about your attendance and learning’s, push SEM into to the forefront of online marketing

What is the Forecast for SEM in Canada?

It will gain momentum, and it is important that Canadian search providers start pushing their services before US based businesses take over the market landscape. There is no longer a financial disadvantage to outsourcing to the US, and US search agencies are already taking up market share.

I’ll end with a reference to an article by Gord Hotchkiss in June of last year entitled ‘Canada, It’s Time To Clue Into Search!’. This is not a new issue, it remains an issue, and the opportunity will be exploited. I can only hope that it will be Canadian businesses and providers who take up the slack and benefit.

The new ‘improved’ SEM Canada Conference in ‘09 will hopefully go a long way to addressing this issue in-country.

Other articles in the Search Marketing Standard 2008 Summer Print Issue include:

• Industry Analysis Articles including; ‘Convergence of Search and the Rise of the Marketing Technologist’
• SEO Articles including; ‘Top Secret: Tactics for Online Competitor Analysis’
• PPC Articles including; ‘Buying Brand: Why Trademarks Matter’
• Interview: ‘Marketing on Facebook – and Interview with Rodney Rumford’
• International: ‘Global Search: Rich Opportunity or Risky Proposition’
• Jobs, Usability issues and more!
• Find out more and subscribe!

Trends From an Investors Perspective

• Microsoft bid for Yahoo!, then withdrew the offer and Yahoo!’s shares dropped nearly 20%
• Google and Yahoo! are still skirting around a search advertising partnership
• Ask withdrew from main stream search to focus on women searchers
• Google’s search share has increased slightly
• Yahoo! search share has remained stagnant in aggregate
• Microsoft’s share has fallen

What to do from an Investors Perspective

Yahoo! (Nasdaq) is not dead by a long shot. While the 2 year trend has been a decline, there is much positive speculation about the future of company and thus the stock.

Google’s share price saw a sharp decline in the first quarter (roughly 45%), but has increased approximately 43% on March values in the last 6-7 weeks. Google’s not going anywhere, and I’m not convinced the share price will experience a similar drop in the near future.

Microsoft’s general trend over the last 2 years has been strongly positive. The share value decrease from February to May 5th can be almost entirely attributed to the Yahoo! bid. Prior to that, many technology shares were hit by poor estimates, the oil price and general instability in the market – all of which fuelled concerns of a general recession.

Off on a mini-tangent, it may be worth looking a little more closely at Apple shares…

[DISCLAIMER – I am not suggesting that anyone who reads this blog pay the slightest bit of notice to my investor ramblings. I have no idea what is going to happen with any of these shares. I thought it might be nice for our readers to see what’s been going on in summary in one place all nice and easy like . If you choose to buy or sell any of the shares I have mentioned, please do so at your own risk. Neither I, nor this blog, take any responsibility for your actions - or the results and consequences of those actions in any way - should you choose to buy or sell any of the shares discussed above.]

Trends From a Marketers Perspective

If we look at trends from the perspective of consumer behavior we see:

• Continued growth in the use of image and video search
• An astronomical increase in the influence of social media marketing in the form of consumer feedback and reviews
• Impact on the traditional F-shaped heat maps generated by eye-tracking studies due to Google’s Universal search results as ‘eyes’ are drawn to image and video search results
• Increased local awareness and power due to the inclusion of the OneBox ten-pack
• Increased SERP interaction due to the roll-out of more Sitelinks and ‘Search Within a Site’ search box features

User interaction is facilitated by these features and the probability is that the trend in click-throughs will skew towards increased searcher interaction with more ‘visible’, usable, graphic listings – assuming the relevancy factor is retained.

If we look at paid search changes in Google alone we see that:

• Google has also recently revised its display URL protocol in AdWords, and
• Google has been experimenting with the inclusion of video results in the paid search listings.

What to do from a Marketer’s Perspective

• Marketers should seriously consider budgeting for continued SEO initiatives, particularly regarding internet market research on consumer search behavior.
• Assigning marketing dollars to image and video production and optimization is imperative as is integrating with relevant social communities.
• Brands need to aggressively begin to empower brand proponents and embrace reputation management (RM) tools. RM has only recently gained the recognition it should have attained years ago.
• With the astronomical growth in both social influence and social media marketing, and the impact of reviews and consumer feedback on online purchase decisions, the need for brand transparency is becoming ever more important.
• Consequently, the need to facilitate consumer feedback and interaction is key to future success in the search and ecommerce space.

Future trends…

If you know – please let me know…

• Laura can be found here and on Twitter.
• Come to the SEMCanada Conference September 2008!