Bing’s new interface does list the search phrases your site is displayed for, which is especially useful when your site is displayed for the wrong things, and what was actually clicked. However, since it doesn’t show the URL that was displayed or your position in the results (you can preform an actual search to figure this out), you don’t have a compete picture of what content is working and what isn’t.

Crawl errors are recorded and graphed, but Bing provides no specifics to guide you as to what the errant links are or what they are linked from. And the tool lacks reports for incoming links, linked phrases, and ranking information.

In summary, Bing’s new interface is slicker looking than the previous product and has some attractive charts. However I am hoping this is just the first pass and that Bing will flow-in additional information to expose the critical details that are currently missing.

In this meet-up we’ll discuss Google webmaster tools, Google analytics, sitemaps, and using redirects to map content with the .htaccess file (emphasis will be on Apache/Linux hosting). Please visist the meet-up site for details and sign-up.

http://www.meetup.com/web-99/calendar/13878846/

Slides from this discussion are here:
Maintain Pagerank when you Launch a New Website

The clues are all in your Analytics data. 

• Is the loss from a single referer (Google, Yahoo, Bing)?
• Is the traffic loss clustered around a specific keywords or phrases?
• Has your website been off-line due to a server outage or update?
• Is there a basic configuration issue, such as an incorrectly written “No Index” entry in the robots.txt file?
• What changes, if any were made to the website preceding the loss?

Jill Whalen with High Rankings in Boston has a really great write-up on looking for the root of the problem here.

To summarize:

1. Determine what type of traffic loss you’re dealing with.
2. Look at the extent of the traffic loss.
3. Compare apples to apples.
4. Review and filter out “brand” traffic.
5. Analyze which keyword phrases have had a significant decrease in visitors.
6. Do a quick Google search for the phrases.
7. Review the landing page for the keyword phrase that lost traffic.
8. Review your long-tail traffic.
9. Decide if you’re dealing with a search engine penalty

This issue can arrise when companies or divisions combine; product lines are renamed or when a new face is placed on an exiting website. Money spent on redesign and years of traffic building can be squandered, if this critical step is missed.

In this session we’ll discuss Google webmaster tools, Google analytics, sitemaps, and using redirects to map content with the .htaccess file (emphasis will be on Apache/Linux hosting). 

Please visist the meet-up site for details and sign-up.
http://www.meetup.com/web-99/calendar/13878846/

The seminar was lead by representatives from Microsoft and Yahoo and they set forth a time-line that showed the transition starting in August for completion by mid-October. They were careful to point out that this transition only effects search results and paid search campaigns (not other services such as Yahoo/Hotmail mail, Yahoo/Live log-ins etc).

After the transition, all organic and paid search results on Yahoo and Bing displayed will come from Microsoft. Presentation of the results may differ, but rank and ad order will appear the same in search results for both.

Once complete, the plan is to use the AdCenter interface to manage and view the performance of ads running on Yahoo and Bing with a single bid strategy across both engines. There was a good deal of discussion about  improvements being made to that AdCenter desktop to provide better support and performance for very large campaigns. The interface will have improved import/export capabilities.

Yahoo users will see new features including.

• Exact, Phrase, and Broad (formerly advanced) match options
• Match types will not apply to negatives (AdCenter is adding ability to have more Negatives)
• Separate bidding for misspellings, plural, and singular terms
• Create custom reports, improved keyword tools
• Content Network support
• 30 character headline drops to 25 (!)
• Microsoft’s Dynamic Keyword Insertion method
• A search query report will be available.
• No decision yet on how Yahoo conversion tracking will be migrated/supported, but it sounded like Microsoft conversion codes will be the norm going forward.
• Bidding/Trademark policies will be merged into a single policy.

The transition sounded somewhat like the transition from Overture to Yahoo Marketing. If you already have campaigns running in Yahoo (Panama), you won’t be forced to migrate (at least not immediately). Once Panama users migrate their accounts to the AdCenter, any accumulated conversion history from old campaigns will be lost.

More information at:

• http://www.ysmblog.com/blog/2010/02/18/search-alliance/
• http://advertising.yahoo.com/transition/en_US

Simple Facebook Connect:  http://bit.ly/d9WLoS

Simple Facebook Connect Makes it easy for your site to use Facebook Connect, in a wholly modular way. 

I was eager to connect with some of the people associated with WebmasterWorld. I was extremely pleased to meet Ted Ulle (Tedster), a prominent poster on WebmasterWorld. I attended Ted’s session on Information Architecture [take away: limit choices to seven or less].  I also attended sessions with Tim Ash and Bryan Massey on Landing Page Optimization [take away: test, test, test...]  and the session on Local Search Marketing by Kate Morris was especially good and uncovered several recent additions to the AdWords interface.

It will take some time to digest all that I learned, but I will discuss key finds with my customers and begin to roll out key changes for their sites in coming weeks.

see: Thank You for Helping Improve Microsoft adCenter

A professional designer can help you identify with an audience and project an appropriate image for your company. Even small details like font type, font sizes, colors, and ease of navigation all come together to set your company apart from the crowd and can make a huge difference in how your business is perceived on the web.

Remember when you attended trade shows?

This point was really driven home years ago when much of product marketing was done at trade shows. When walking the aisles of a large trade show it was easy to spot the homemade designs. Sure, sometimes the product was so compelling or unique that the homespun booth design didn’t get in the way, but more often than not, it just identified that company as a minor player in a much larger market.

Getting noticed was almost always a problem at large events, but you didn’t want your booth to become a circus act. While giving away tee shirts and hawking your products over a megaphone may generate a lot of traffic, in my experience, the hoopla detracts from your message and rarely translates into sales. The same is true for your website. Too many icons, buttons and colors can detract from your message. For traffic to translate into sales, you need a solid message, a unique selling proposition, and content that engages the prospect and answers questions that address key problems and concerns.

People want to do business with an authority in the field

People want to do business with an authority. They want to know that the company they have chosen to work with is a safe choice and a leader in the market. A website is in many cases the first impression someone has of your company and doing it right can make a huge difference in marketing your products and services.

A website is not a brochure

Somehow the importance of all this seems to be lost on many company executives. Companies who wouldn’t think twice about spending thousands on booth design, brochures, promotional items, and direct mail for a one time event, will attempt to market the same products and services on the Internet on a budget they might allocate tor the production of a brochure. Or worse, hire a friend that “does websites,” paste in some blurbs from a brochure and feel they have covered their bases. 

The website should be your top producing sales rep

Your company website has the role of a sales person, working 24/7, representing your company, answering questions, educating the prospect. Many times it will be the first impression prospects will have of your business and should convey quality at every turn. Like any good sales rep, its appearance should be a reflection of its audience, wearing tennis shoes if it’s selling skateboards and a suit if it’s selling financial advice.  

The copy should be carefully written to convey your understanding of the market and the solutions you provide. Care must be taken to avoid proprietary product terms, techno-babble and unverifiable marketing hyperbole. It must be both brief and lengthy. Brief pages should contain enough information to capture the attention of the prospect frantically surfing the Internet aisles for a solution, and longer pages enabling a prospect to drill deeper when they need to know more about your solution.

In the end, the money you spend on quality website design, content and copy writing will pay sales dividends for years to come. Hey and while I am on this rant, keep your focus on the message and let the designer design. When a non-designer becomes too involved, it almost always results in a bad ending.
See: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

A list of folks I work with and recommend is here: web designers

More on this from Google here