Google, Overture offer tips on getting better Internet search performance
When an Internet search program is not producing intended results, there are several steps a marketer can take to improve results, executives from search engines Google Inc. and Overture Services Inc. told attendees at this week’s Annual Catalog Conference. Before dropping an under-performing keyword that had been expected to produce strong results, for instance, a marketer should try improving the creative message tied to the keyword or changing its web site landing page, said Diane Rinaldo, director of strategic alliances for Overture, a unit of Yahoo Inc.
Patrick Keane, head of sales strategy for Google, said a good yardstick for measuring a keyword’s effectiveness is reaching 1,000 impressions within the time expected by the marketer, though the threshold could be lower for less-trafficked terms in narrow markets.
Keane emphasized the importance of combining effective keywords with strong creative messages, noting that Google’s paid-search rankings are based on the cost-per-click price a marketer pays in addition to the number of click-throughs its keyword listings produce. Although Overture bases its rankings only on the cost-per-click price, it will bounce a listing from search results if its click-through rate falls too low, Rinaldo said.
Rinaldo added that marketers should modify creative messages to highlight seasonal consumer needs as well as featured services. “In May, take brand names and test spring messages, including pricing promotions with messages that begin with ‘As low as’ or ‘Starting at’ and if you offer free shipping, flaunt it in your creative,” Rinaldo said. “Use marketing information that works in other channels.”
Retailers of seasonal products should consider improving their creative messages as well as increase their pay-per-click bids to assure higher rankings during peak shopping times. “If you sell ice skates, you may want to push up their rank in November,” she said.
Also crucial to search rankings are the number of links to a landing page from other web sites, said Detlev Johnson, president of technology for consulting firm SuccessWorks, who appeared on the panel with Keane and Rinaldo. “If your page doesn’t have enough links pointing to it, it doesn’t stand a good chance of staying in the Google index,” he said. “If there are many links to it, you can make sure it stays indexed over the long term.”
One way to test if a web page will be picked up by a search engine spider for indexing is to check if it can be easily bookmarked by a web browser, Johnson said. This can be an important step for pages that have a lot of dynamic content, including Flash rich media features, which can prevent a page from being indexed, he added. “It’s safe to say if a page can be bookmarked in browser software, it generally is spider friendly,” he said.
The panelists heard concerns from retailers who say they struggle with protecting their trademarks from affiliates that bid too high on keywords for paid-search results, but Google and Overture said they could offer little if any help in preventing other marketers from initially using trademarks. Google will, however, prevent further use of trademarks in paid-search keywords and related creative material if a trademark owner files a complaint with Google, a spokesman says. Google plans to soon amend that policy to limit it to creative material, the spokesman adds. “It’s an onerous task to police trademarks in keywords,” Keane said.
Rinaldo added that Overture allows anyone to bid on trademarked terms, but bidders must show sufficient site content related to the trademarks that would be useful to consumers.
Regarding natural search results, the panelists said marketers should make landing pages closely tied to keywords that consumers would most likely use. “Look at Amazon,” Keane said. “Amazon has individual product keywords in page URLs.”
Heather Lloyd-Martin, president of CEO of SuccessWorks and the panel’s moderator, said marketers should routinely check to see how many of their pages are indexed by search engines. At Google, for instance, such information can be found at Google.com/webmasters.
Google and Overture were asked at the session if third-party search engine marketing firms can ever provide discounted cost-per-click rates. They denied any such special treatment. “It’s only open bids,” Rinaldo said.
She added in comments following the session that marketers’ use of search engine technology had come a long way in recent years, but that the industry still had much to develop in both technology and strategies. “We’re maybe in the fourth grade,” she said. “We’re not in kindergarten anymore, but we still have a long way to go.”
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