Google published its earnings last month, reporting its search result sites generated revenues of $3.40 billion in the first quarter of 2008.

Meanwhile, an iProspect study showed that 60.5 per cent of Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL users selected a natural (unpaid) search result over paid search result as the most relevant on a sample query. Additionally, 60.8% of Yahoo and 72.3% of Google search engine users chose a natural search result as the most relevant.

The conclusion: appearing on natural rankings is most valuable to businesses. Natural search results are more trusted by online users and attract more clicks.

During a meeting to discuss an upcoming project, a marketing director from a U.S. firm suggested the client would be better served investing more on print materials, including print ads and direct ad mails, versus search engine ads and search engine optimization (SEO).

While print ads and direct mail have their place in the marketing realm, Webcopyplus strongly suggested the client stay the course and focus mainly on SEO.

The client, who is introducing a new type of data storage component for computers, is targeting a broad market — virtually anyone who uses a computer.

Even if you gain access to a direct mail list of individuals who recently purchased computer products, there’s no accurate way of forecasting current or future purchases.

Meanwhile, SEO allows you to target your audience when consumers are at their peak point of interest.

That’s when they are most likely to make a purchase, which translates to high conversion rates, and your best return on investment.

The competition is intense, but Google still dominates the search engine market, drawing far more search users, requests and ad revenues than all its rivals put together, reported eMarketer.

The New York-based research firm estimates that Google raked in 75% of US paid search advertising in 2007, up from 60 per cent in 2006. Number two, Yahoo, collected a mere nine per cent share, while all others divided 16% of the leftovers.

But with over $8.6 billion going to search engine advertising in 2007, that 16% stake still equals nearly $1.4 billion, noted eMakreter. And with search spending expected to nearly double to almost $16.6 billion in 2011, even a small piece of the pie represents serious revenue.

Have you ventured ‘outside the box’ today?

Many businesses claim they’re innovative when it comes to the Internet, but few seem to demonstrate it.

Most stay on the cushy path, eagerly following cyber herds with the tried-and-true. “Why take a chance?” After all, going outside the box can be downright scary.

One group that relentlessly ventures into the unknown is “an ideas studio” named Burnkit, which is made up of 14 “thinkers” in Vancouver, BC.

Continue reading →

Google, whose $13 billion in revenue mainly comes from clicks on ads, plays down click fraud.

Meanwhile, the rate of fraudulent clicks was 15.8% in the second quarter of 2007, up 1% from three months earlier. Plus, Click Forensics estimates that more than 25% of all clicks were fraudulent, up from about 22% in the previous quarter.

Forbes’ Andy Greenburg talks to Google’s Senior Product Manager Shuman Ghosemajumder about this issue in the article Counting Clicks.

You’ve got plenty of traffic, but you’re not able to persuade visitors to take action. It’s a common and aching issue for many online businesses.

Too often, business owners impulsively throw more money into existing marketing campaigns, believing it’s merely a numbers game — i.e. “I just need more traffic and the sales will materialize.” But one has to realize the simple fact that a zero per cent conversion rate means no sales, whether you’re attracting 10 visitors a day or 10,000.

Presuming you’re driving the right people to your site, Web site conversions can be boosted through various means, explained Yuval Karjevski, Senior Software Engineer at New York-based Reditus Solutions, which helps companies analyze their online performance in a bid to achieve optimal results.

Continue reading →

Forrester Research reports Europe’s search engine marketing investments will exceeds €8 billion in 2012.

Search spending will soar with 80% growth in the next five years as marketers use search marketing to alter their customers’ buying decisions, forecasts the independent technology and market research company.

In 2012, Forrester expects search investment in Europe to top €8.1 billion, up from today’s spend of €4.5 billion. Paid search is expected to uphold the largest share of investment.

“Marketers will continue to like performance-based media buying,” suggests the organization. “Over the next five years, as broadband and e-commerce expand, search marketing investment will double in 12 of the 17 European countries tracked.”

Forrester also reports European e-mail marketing spend will hit €2.3 billion in 2012.

In fact, European online consumers get almost twice as many commercial messages as work-related or personal e-mails, reports Forrester’s Senior Analyst Rebecca Jennings.

She notes: “Even though many of them delete the marketing e-mails unread or have spam filters, e-mail remains a strong marketing channel.”

Over the next five years, Forrester estimates that the volume of these messages will double, with the value of the market increasing from €1.5 billion in 2007 to €2.3 billion in 2012.

Concluded Jennings: “Marketers will use more sophisticated targeting, messaging, and analytics to engage the critical consumer.”

Editor’s note: PricewaterhouseCoopers recently reported on online spending in Canada, Asia and Latin America.

Businesses need to dig deeper to connect with customers in the expanding sea of Web 2.0 user-generated content.

The rapid rise of social networking and blogging is churning out information at record rates, creating a flood of independent ideas, views and expressions.

Web authority Technorati reports there are more than 100 million blogs sailing the Web, with 175,000 new blogs diving in each day. What’s more, bloggers are updating these sites with more than 1.6 million posts per day, which translates to more than 18 updates a second.

Continue reading →

To get the right web copy working for your online business, you need to know exactly what market you’re targeting.

For instance, I recently consulted HR firm directors who want to invest in keyword-rich web copywriting to boost their organic search engine rankings. But they’re putting the cart before the horse; they have yet to clearly define their target market.

You can’t optimize your web copywriting with the right keywords if you don’t know exactly who you’re targeting and in what market or region. It turns out they will attempt to incubate a local network, and moving forward they’ll try to make themselves known to select organizations across Canada and the U.S.

Depending on the nature of your business, your SEO copywriting might need to be ‘regionalized’ to reach your target market. For instance, a North Vancouver-based skin care clinic we recently performed work for would have little or no benefit receiving traffic from other cities as all services are performed locally.

Hence, all SEO efforts had strong regional emphasis in a bid to attract local consumers. Again, online visitors from New York would have no value to this client, so we didn’t water down our efforts by targeting global or general terms.

The strategy and effort paid off. Within five weeks, the client benefited from 58 number one positions on the top three search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN. In fact, the client reported a significant number of website-generated leads — all made possible by purposefully targeting regionalized keywords and phrases.

Businesses of all sizes get taken by a bad breed of online marketing firms that shamelessly over promise and under deliver.

These fly-by-night SEO ‘experts’ lurk in the darkest corners of the Web, many under the cloak of anonymity, preying on businesses that seek a competitive edge on the ever-expanding Internet.

Unfortunately, many fall victim because they don’t do adequate research, and buy into hyped-up sales pitches packed with unachievable promises. When all’s said and done, they are left with sub-standard services, products and results — if anything at all.

Continue reading →