November 17,
2004
In
This Issue:
1. Microsoft Has a Search Engine
2. In the News - GoRank Research, Google Grows
3. More News Headlines
4. This Week's Q&A - Adwords and Overture
5. Wrapping It Up
_________________
Microsoft Has a Search Engine
After years of talking about plans to enter the search industry
with its own engine, Microsoft has finally followed through and "walked
the talk." As we mentioned briefly last week, the new MSN
Search has entered into "public beta" status, meaning
it's not finished, but anyone who wants can start playing with
it. The address, if you haven't tried it yet yourself:
http://beta.search.msn.com/
Some quick comments:
1. This is much better than the semi-private "tech previews" we
saw and discussed in this newsletter earlier in the year. It's
still not ready for prime time, but they're getting there. I railed
in past newsletters about eBay.com not showing up on searches for "auction" or "auctions".
Well, run those searches now and it's at least in the top 10, though
it should be No. 1 since it's THE dominant auction site on the
web.
2. Click on the "Search Builder" link right underneath
the text box. You'll get several options to choose from, and you
want to click on "Results ranking". When you do, you'll
get three "sliders" that allow you to adjust your search:
You can give more weight to "approximate match" vs. "exact
match", "very popular" or "less popular",
and "updated recently" vs. "static." This is
an innovative tool that lets you peek inside how a search engine
ranks pages -- want pages that have a lot of inbound links? Move
that middle slider toward "very popular". want to find
pages that may be a match for your search, but don't have a lot
of inbound links? Move it to "less popular." Very cool
tool.
3. I'm not impressed at all with the display. After your search,
you get big orange lettering that says "Web Results",
with "1-10 results containing ______" below it. But the
first thing listed isn't those 1-10 web results, it's a set of
advertisements with the words "Sponsored Sites" placed
far to the right in a very opaque color that most people won't
see. This kind of deception isn't a good way to launch a new search
engine. Web results and paid ads should be more clearly separated.
_________________
In The News
GoRank.com Compares Google, Yahoo, and MSN Beta
GoRank.com's latest research report is out, and it offers some
insight into how Google, Yahoo, and the MSN Beta handle keyword
density on a web page. The results continue to show what we've
talked about before: Yahoo gives more weight to on-page factors
like keyword density than Google does. But if you click the link
below, I'd encourage you to skip to the "Interesting Observations" section
if you find yourself getting glossy-eyed with all the stats and
numbers and tables of data.
The stunning number to look at is how many words does the typical "top
10" page have. In Google, the typical "top 10" page
has ... get this ... 905 words! And in Yahoo that number jumps
to 1,062 words per page. That's even more evidence that you MUST
write lots of good content on your web pages if you want to help
yourself rank better in search engines. Pages with a picture
and a sentence or two just won't cut it.
GoRank:
MSN, Yahoo, & Google Keyword Density Comparison
Google Gets Bigger
Google announced last week that its index of web pages has grown
to more than 8 billion documents.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2004/11/googles-index-nearly-doubles.html
_________________
More News Headlines
Here are a few news headlines worth your time to read.
These are just some of the headlines we've posted
to OWTweb.com in recent
days.
Can Flash gain search engine respect?
November 17, 2004 - eWeek
For Web sites based on Macromedia Flash, search engines are anything
but friendly.
Is your domain locked down?
November 12, 2004 - InternetNews.com
Microsites and SEM: A proof of concept
November 12, 2004 - ClickZ.com
More headlines: http://www.owtweb.com/news/
_________________
This Week's Q&A
Hi Matt,
Our company is ready to some advertising on the web and we want
to use search engines like Google and Yahoo to get some more
customers to our web site. How do the advertising programs they
offer work? Is it something we can do ourselves?
Thanks,
Allison
Hi Allison --
Google's program is called AdWords and
Yahoo's program is run by their own company, Overture.
They both allow you to sponsor certain search terms that you
choose. It's essentially an auction: you choose the terms you want
to sponsor,
indicate how much you're willing to bid (pay) when someone
clicks your ad, and how much you're willing to spend. The systems
then
do the rest automatically, and depending on how much you've
bid in comparison to others bidding on those same terms, and how
much
you're willing to spend, your ad may (or may not) appear when
someone searches those terms.
This space doesn't really allow for a more detailed overview
of both programs, how they work, etc., but speaking from
experience with our clients, this type of paid search advertising
can
be an
effective way to bring traffic to your web site. Make sure
you sponsor the most appropriate terms and make sure you
write an
ad that will encourage people to click. And yes, it might
be something
you can do yourselves. We have some clients who manage their
own ad campaigns, and others prefer to have us do it.
(Have a question? Email questions@owtweb.com)
_________________
Wrapping it Up
This is a couple months old, but Seth Godin writes about the
quick ascendance of the Internet as a medium in comparison to TV.
Less Than a Decade
Thanks for reading,
Matt McGee
The OWT Newsletter is a weekly service offered free to anyone
interested in learning more about web development, search engine
optimization/marketing, and just about anything else related to
running a business web site. You don't need to be an OWT client
to subscribe to our newsletter!
Subscribing and unsubscribing can be done online at OWTweb.com.
You may share this newsletter with others as long as the newsletter
is shared in its entirety.
Private replies to emails will be written if we have time, but
we don't provide web site critiques or consulting services
for free. You can learn more about our web development and search
engine marketing services online at www.owtweb.com.
|
