Archive for September, 2008

The online travel sector should avoid turning to Google for pay-per-click (PPC) ads to keep costs low, it has been claimed.

Steve Endacott, chief executive of On Holiday Group, told the Travel Technology Initiative’s Travel Futures conference earlier this month that Google’s ad offerings are having a negative impact on companies’ profits due to organisations getting into bidding wars.

Others suggested that it may be more viable to go through a website such as Expedia, although Jamie Cole of Hilton claimed that this would actually be more expensive, Travolution reports.

Peter Healey, chief executive of Vertical Group, added that the online travel sector is currently faced with the problem of converting website visitors into customers due to the sheer number of options available to consumers.

"Most people are paralysed by the richness of choice they have online. They come on and take a stab in the dark," he commented.

Earlier this month, a study by Whatsonwhen and Travolution indicated that more than two-thirds of travel organisations intend to invest more money in search engine optimisation over the next year.

Businesses would do well to track website traffic from mobile devices as part of their online optimisation campaigns, it has been suggested.

A new survey conducted by Omniture has indicated that seven in ten firms do not measure mobile site traffic, while 50 per cent are unsure as to how many of their unique users are utilising mobile devices.

The company warned that ignoring the potential offered by mobile website visitors could result in the loss of significant marketing and revenue opportunities.

"This intelligence from mobile traffic can be used to optimise website content for mobile users and fine tune mobile marketing efforts," said Omniture’s Neil Weston.

Omniture cited figures from JupiterResearch predicting that mobile internet take-up will increase to 47 per cent by 2013.

In the UK, usage of mobile search has soared by 30 per cent in the last year, according to recent statistics published by comScore.

Blogs can do much to help small and medium-sized businesses improve the success of their online marketing campaigns, it has been claimed.

According to the US News & World Report, blogging can increase business and boost online awareness of the company in question when done right.

Good blogs can attract potential customers and improve search engine optimisation (SEO) significantly, thus bringing in more prospective custom, the website stated.

Blogger Chris Brogan noted: "Small businesses are starting to understand that people don’t come to your main web page. They ask Google."

Some of the tips offered by the US News & World Report for small businesses getting started with blogging included advice to regularly read other blogs, refrain from worrying about regularly updating the journal with long articles and keep SEO tactics simple.

According to Technorati’s latest research on the blogosphere, those keeping an online blog have been doing so for an average of three years.

Businesses should be aware that the search ad deal between Google and Yahoo! will not result in the two companies setting ad prices, it has been urged.

According to a post by Yahoo! president Sue Decker on the Yodel Anecdotal blog, many of the rumours linked to the agreement are untrue and do the benefits of the deal a disservice.

She explained that Yahoo! does not have to use Google’s pay-per-click ads if it does not want to and emphasised that the agreement will bring a boost for Yahoo!’s competitiveness in paid search as well as increasing opportunities for search advertisers.

"We are not in any way going to be coordinating or setting search term pricing with Google," Ms Decker added.

"The fact is that advertisers set prices by bidding in our real time auctions."

Google and Yahoo! have recently launched a website, yahoogooglefacts.com, to set out the facts behind their agreement.

For some light Sunday relief, enjoy the Search Engine Rap Battle on Youtube. A geeky man on a scooter in white vest, cap and glasses representing Google has a rap face-off against Yahoo dressed as a Cowboy and MSN in a blue superhero catsuit. Memorable lines include Google to MSN: “Your new system hasn’t got many users, they only use vista because it came on the computers.” MSN retorts, “You bought YouTube for $2billion bucks, he bought YouTube and the search still sucks”. Yahoo does well too, telling MSN, “The only Hotmail you’ve got is when Ballmer gets sweaty…. $40bn couldn’t buy you a date with me.”

The average adult asks eight questions an hour during polite conversation, not counting the questions we ask ourselves. Providing more human answers to search queries is the next big challenge for search engines. Will we ever really see the semantic web? Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google, described ‘our ideal search engine’ to The Telegraph as, “Your best friend, with instant access to all the world’s facts and a photographic memory of everything you’ve seen and know.”

Consumer concerns over the credit crunch are being reflected in online search trends, according to research firm Hitwise.

The company said that Britons’ desire for low prices and discounts can be seen in the fact that price comparison website traffic has increased by a fifth in the year to July 2008, while online sales searches have trebled.

Voucher websites have also enjoyed a 130 per cent increase in UK internet traffic over the same period, Hitwise noted.

Robin Goad, research director for Hitwise UK, said: “This is the first real economic downturn to have occurred during the internet age and Hitwise data provides some fascinating insights into how people are reacting.”

Nielsen Online said earlier this year that the 12 months to June saw money-saving sites such as online voucher portals and discount holiday offerings account for a significant number of the fastest rising websites in the UK.

Levchin, the co-founder of PayPal and CEO of Slide, a global widget provider, talked of two diverging trends in social networking in a recent FT interview. “One is the notion of a place where your digital self lives. The other is information consumption-driven – it’s your inbox. It’s not you, it’s what you are interested in. These models can coexist. And I’m not sure they will ever merge. Maybe there will be a final showdown, but it won’t be for a while.”

The first half of 2008 saw spending on internet advertising rise by eight per cent in the US compared with the same period last year.

This is according to new figures released by research company TNS Media Intelligence, which showed that overall spending on all forms of advertising fell by 3.7 per cent year-on-year - the sharpest drop since 2001.

Dean DeBiase, chief executive of TNS Media, said the trend could be down to marketers increasingly looking to improve efficiencies by switching to new platforms.

"It appears marketers are placing an emphasis upon enhanced efficiencies for their brands and the ability to engage with well-defined audiences to ensure ever greater return on investment," he commented.

Other channels that saw increases in spending included cable TV, syndication TV and outdoor ads.

A recent Enders Analysis report indicated that ad budget cuts are causing ad prices to fall and prompting a shift towards performance-based ad exchanges and networks in the UK.

Yahoo! has unveiled its new APT platform, designed to make the process of buying and selling online display ads easier.

The web-based platform integrates a number of functions, including planning and optimisation.

US newspapers the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News are already using APT, which will be opened up to other organisations next year.

Speaking at the fifth annual Advertising Week event in New York, Yahoo! executives explained that the platform works to link all of the parties involved in the process of dealing with display ads.

"One of the major benefits of APT from Yahoo is the fact that it’s an open system, designed to enable advertisers to reach their audiences in their favourite places across the web and publishers to monetise inventory across the broadest possible demand channels," commented Sue Decker, president of Yahoo!.

Yahoo! is currently working to improve its online advertising operations through the newly formed Digital Advisory Council.