I always had a soft spot for Yahoo and wanted them to pull through. They were and still are my home page because they’re an awesome information portal, and I even used their search functions more often than Google. That is, up until late last year when they started making massive changes to their algorithm that rendered them a distant #2 in relevance rather than a close #2. And if Yahoo right now is a distant #2, MSN / Bing / Binghoo / whatever they’ll call it is a distant #3, voted Most Likely to be Dripping With Spam of the big three engines. I hope the math of this deal doesn’t count on huge growth in search, because without some significant cleanup of the MSN / Bing algorithm, both Yahoo and MSN might be able to continue driving profits from their display media but they’ll ultimately lose more searchers to the much more relevant Google.

Another thing at risk due to this deal: Diversity of options. A lot of people on the search side and the business world are applauding this as serious competition for Google. I see it as a serious cutback in search options for consumers. We’re now down to two primary options for search, and one of them is mostly useful if you’d like to click on affiliate links as a result of your search. At least with three major players there was the hope that someone else could present solid search competition to Google. I’m a red in tooth and claw capitalist, and I’m not saying this should be stopped in the interest of the consumer, but the everyday individual isn’t going to be better off with fewer options to choose from. Still, it opens the door for someone to step up, figure out search and quietly step into a #3 position as a welcome alternative.

Eh. With all the Googlers involved with the current administration, this deal may be pretty far from being done anyway. Everyone be prepared to hear a company that owns 75% of the real estate in the search market use the word ‘antitrust’ and ‘anticompetitive’ with regards to its competitors.

So, with that out of my system I’m gonna go pick some daisies or something to get me in a cheerier mood!

Post from: Search Engine Snark

Yahoo and MSN merge search – it’s official

Improving your conversion rate is always important. In times when your traffic is dropping off, however, it’s damn critical to:

1. Find new, cheap / free channels to drive new traffic in order to make up for lost ground elsewhere
2. Convert your shoppers into buyers more frequently
3. Prep your resume and/or soup kitchen location guide

The easiest place – and possibly most critical – to attack this is going to be your checkout process. You’ve got customers who’ve made the decision to add something to their cart / basket / bag / moving truck (whatever you’re calling your shopping cart nowadays) but who ultimately put it back on the shelf and walk away. These are your most likely converts and a quick place to win more revenue at no cost but labor.

This is probably why, according to Shop.org, 8 out of 10 retailers are planning on enhancing or improving their shopping cart in the next 12 months, and 90% of medium-sized retailers.

If you’re not part of this group, I’d focus an awful lot on options 1 and 3 above, and take in CheckoutOptimation.com’s excellent roundup on the topic.

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2009: The year of checkout optimization

Post from: Search Engine Snark

Range Blog Post – Long tail for natural search

The major takeaway for lazy SOBs who need Cliff’s Notes is that you should always remember that information is key in SEO campaigns, both in terms of providing it to engines and to people within your organization.

Post from: Search Engine Snark

SEW Column – Sharing & SEO

To say nothing of the fact that one of our awesome Range SEOers John Greer just became a father for the second and third time earlier this week (twin boys, in addition to their newly crowned big sister), things are a bit busy around here!

Soooo…I’m again in the process of reshuffling tasks and writing duties, so things might, once again, get slow on Search Engine Snark - I know, how would you know – but I’m hoping to be back soon to at least pick back up on my beloved Search of the Day, to add more news and musings that don’t necessarily fit the other forums and, of course, to shamelessly self-promote activities in the other corners of my world.

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MORE big news!

Post from: Search Engine Snark

SIPA presentation coverage

Link expired and you want the rest? Ask / hire us!

1. Separate branded from non-brand keywords
2. Build calendars
3. Tie keywords to KPIs
4. Compare SEO metrics to total site performance
5. Don’t forget offline conversions
6. Drill down to diagnose problems
7. Monitor links

UPDATE: Picked up by Mediapost, too!

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A little Marketing Sherpa love…

Post from: Search Engine Snark

A video for all agency folks

This weekend is looking like more of the same beautiful, cloudless weather as far as the eye can see, so for all those who can partake, I highly recommend. It is so choice. Spend some time outside, learn how to grill filet mignon and, if you think of it, send some happy thoughts for me in preparation for speaking at SIPA 2009!

Post from: Search Engine Snark

Quick note for the weekend…

Let’s face it – this never really stopped anyone from re-using content from other sites and especially images – especially in instances where the license wasn’t made especially clear. But, much like iTunes when it first came out, for those interested in following the rules this makes for an easy and relatively painless process…or at least a subtle reminder to people that not purchasing / attributing / getting permission is still stealing.

So now’s your chance to start behaving like a gentlemanly blogger, you noble bastard!

Post from: Search Engine Snark

Yahoo Image Search By Creative Commons License