Posted November 24th, 2009, by Stephen Cobb
About a year ago, as Thanksgiving 2008 drew near, I wrote an article about a phenomenon that I dubbed the turducken disconnect. The full title was The Turducken Disconnect: An SEM Fable for the Holidays and the main point, hidden among some seasonal yarn spinning, was this:
If you are A. selling things online, and B. trying–through paid search or organic search–to get people to come to your site to buy those things, then we can reasonably assert C: someone who searches for one of those things and clicks on your link in search results should land on a page featuring the item they were seeking.
I went on to say–by way of example–that if you sell turducken and someone clicks on your paid search ad for turducken, your site should greet them with a turducken. It does not have to be a talking turducken. It doesn’t even need to be a specially-priced turducken (although that could be a good way to convert first-time visitors into first time buyers). The point is, your traffic from the search term “turducken” should be met with turducken, not sausages or fish stew, regardless of how mouth-watering those other items might be. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted February 25th, 2009, by Stephen Cobb
As you probably know, Search Marketing Expo (SMX) is a series of search marketing conferences and expos backed by Search Engine Land. In other words, it’s all about search, about getting people who are searching for something to click on a link to your web site. For most e-commerce sites, search plays a central role in traffic generation, bringing visitors to the web site.
But what happens when those visitors arrive? How does the web site hold their interest and convert visitors into customers after that click? That is the world of post-click marketing. So, it was pretty interesting to me that Gordon Hotchkiss, the CEO of Enquiro, one of North America’s leading search marketing vendors, reportedly had this to say at SMX West in Santa Clara this month:
“post-click marketing moves the needle for our clients more than any other aspect of search marketing.”
This observation, delivered as Mr. Hotchkiss was moderating a panel on Advanced Landing Page Strategies, is interesting for several reasons. First of all, one could argue that post-click marketing is not really search marketing at all. Sure, you can link search-derived traffic to post-click campaigns, but you can also run successful post-click campaigns that are entirely independent of your search marketing campaigns. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted November 10th, 2008, by Stephen Cobb
Kaila Colbin’s Search Insider post amusingly titled ”What Do Search And Toilet Paper Have In Common?” actually concludes with a very thoughtful sentence:
The president-elect said, “That which connects us is greater than that which divides us.” I don’t think he was talking about technology — but it would certainly apply.
Indeed it would, and probably should, given the game-changing role that the Internet played in the election and continues to play in the transition. I find myself finally daring to hope that the new administration “gets” connectivity to a degree unprecedented in government and public service, at a level that can command respect in the garages and basements and cubicles of startups where the geeks and coders and emerging gurus of enterprise are pushing the envelope of connection.
A few years ago, very few people would have dared to believe that a change in government could inspire those who are driven to make information technology deliver the most benefit to the most people. When the president-elect said “spread the wealth around” some people thought the phrase could be taken–out of context–and used against him. They were wrong. Why? One reason might be the large number of people who have been happy to “spread the technology around” for many years. Few things can generate wealth like technology and few technologies enable spreading better than search and the Internet.
Posted October 9th, 2008, by Stephen Cobb
We appreciate Laurie Sullivan at MediaPost finding something positive to write about today. Her article for Online Media Daily begins: “Despite economic woes rattling nerves about ad budgets, experts expect search advertising and marketing to hold up well.” She continues:
Steve Lagnado–controller at Didit.com, which manages 100 accounts, each spending between $50,000 and $2 million monthly–and Peter Hershberg–managing partner at Reprise Media, whose clients shell out about $100,000 per month in paid search–don’t expect to see search budgets cut anytime soon.
We’d like to intepret this to mean that online media and e-commerce will remain relatively healthy even while business conditions in the bricks-and-mortar world endure a rough patch.
David Brussin
Stephen Cobb
Blair Lyon
Tom Ellis