iWebEarth

Google is extending its services to mobile phone users in Africa via Google SMS. Google SMS is a suite of mobile apps that provide access to information covering various topics such as health and agriculture tips, news, local weather sports and more. This is Google’s way of extending its services and reaching out to African mobile users who rely so much on SMS in carrying out their day to day activities.

Google SMS features Google Trader, a mobile app which African users can use to sell or buy any any type of products or services. It’s like an SMS-based eBay where you can find used cars, mobile phone, crops, livestock, jobs and other consumer goods which are up for sale.

Aside from this, Google SMS also features SMS Tips which is SMS-based query-and-answer service which works like a mobile search interface. Of course the answer is delivered through SMS.

Google Trader and SMS Tips are the products of collaboration among Google, the Grameen Foundation, MTN Uganda and other African local organizations.

The African region has the world’s highest mobile growth rate. Compared with the Internet, mobile phones has a higher penetration rate on the African population. It’s no wonder that Google focusing on this avenue especially since one third of the African population own a mobile phone.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Google Launches SMS Mobile App in Africa

Google Android applications are currently written in Java and run off Google’s Dalvik Java virtual machine, however, that will soon change.  Last week Google announced the Android Native Development Kit (v. 1.0) that will allow software to run natively on the Linux layer below.  Without getting into the nitty gritty details of software development, what this all means is that Mozilla is likely to bring the mobile version of Firefox, called Fennec, to the Android platform.

A year ago, Mozilla decided not to focus on Android because of the Java constraints and because it already had a browser of its own.  They wanted to first focus on platforms that either didn’t already have a browser, or didn’t have a good one.  However, Mozilla did note that they were anticipating the day that Google would open up the platform.

Jay Sullivan, Mozilla’s vice president of mobile, said recently:

“Developers are taking a look at the NDK to see if it provides the capabilities we need to bring Fennec to Android. If it’s possible, I think our community would be interested in doing it, because Android will be appearing on more smartphones with the capabilities to provide a good browsing experience.”

In addition to expressing interest in an Android version of the Firefox/Fennec browser, Mozilla also has interest in a variety of sub-PC devices, including Netbooks.

In other Mozilla news, a new version of the desktop Firefox is about ready to be released.  On Friday the company said that Tuesday looked like it would be the ship date for version 3.5.  Then again, it could still be a couple days.  You’ll know when it happens though – your browser will alert you that a new version is available to install.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Google Android Version of Firefox Likely to be Developed

Google currently has more than 25,000 news sources that contribute content for Google News, and now they are inviting them to share professional news videos via YouTube.  After being approved as a YouTube Parnter, these news sources will be permitted to host videos for free on YouTube.  While that in itself probably isn’t enough to convince them to share their videos that way – there’s more to it that makes it a very enticing option.

YouTube news partners get some nice perks:

• Featured placement on the YouTube news page
• Opportunities to generate revenue via advertising
• Visibility in Google News, thanks to the redesigned results page, which began including YouTube videos in its results back in May.

In addition, by participating in this program, it can create a larger audience for the news sources by sharing videos on a site that reaches millions, instead of being limited to just their own smaller audiences.

As the owner of a Google News participating website myself, I am definitely going to check this out, and see if we can ramp up our production of news videos.  I’ll let you know how that goes.  In the meantime, if your a part of a news organization interested in becoming a Google News partner, you can apply here at Google News.  After that, if you would like to be involved as a YouTube partner, you can apply here.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Google Invites News Publishers to Share Videos on YouTube

I don’t usually write columns like this.

This one is more philosophical than usual, but I think it’s an important topic for everybody in search and modern advertising and marketing to read and comment on.

I want to discuss what I’ve realized is my bias against traditional PR and marketing- in an open-minded way, as one who understands those things still have value- and also discuss the divide between digital and traditional marketing, as well as web analytics and accountability.

If You Learn PPC Direct Response Marketing First…

I started my advertising and marketing journey in PPC (2005) and SEO (2002′ish)… during the infancy of the shift from traditional to digital/interactive marketing. That major shift – about which I think many traditional marketers are still in denial – has also led to a shift toward greater accountability in results, and increased emphasis on marketing ROI.

I’m an outsider to the PR and TV and other traditional media industries, but I read the big journals like AdAge and others, and it doesn’t sound like the shift toward ROI has affected them too much. Or maybe they’re just not advertising it. We see charts that show marketing dollars shifting toward digital and toward the highest ROI digital channels (pay per click and email marketing), but the discussions that those in traditional marketing are having seem blind to the larger shifts toward digital and ROI.

So, as someone who learned marketing and advertising in PPC, a highly trackable, highly accountable channel, and learned by reading about Claude Hopkins’ scientific advertising and the methods and results of direct marketers like direct mail experts, I initially was very judgmental of traditional marketers.

Misgivings About Traditional Advertising

TV; "Brainwashed" by Aaron Escobar™

For example: I watch TV and see beer ads and later realize I remember the ad but not which beer it was for.

Does this increase sales of that brand’s beer? I doubt it. I suspect it reinforces the brand affinity of those who already drink that beer, but I doubt it brings in too many new customers. And you can’t track it to find out, can you?

I was definitely jealous of the money agencies were getting to produce these commercials, often fun ones that were probably fun to conceive, possibly to win awards and be thought of as standout agencies, and yet not be held accountable for whether these campaigns produced any uptick in sales at all.

Emphasis on ROI

Meanwhile, in the early days of my PPC education back in 2004, I could produce remarkable ROI for an advertiser, tell them they could spend more and make more profit, but they wouldn’t divert the funds.  Either they had an annual budget and bureaucracy that made it impossible to spend more- senseless to me, because where was that unexpected profit going? Just reinvest it in PPC!

Now times have changed, not only with more understanding but also with economic forces. Now it’s not hard to find an advertiser that wants better ROI. Now we have different problems…

The Double-Edged Sword of Analytics

Juggling Swords and Chainsaws by morbuto

The most trackable advertising is also the easiest to hold accountable. And our tracking isn’t perfect. So PPC could bring in great ROI, or it might be mediocre. Even if it’s mediocre, some of its effects could show up in other marketing channels and it doesn’t get the credit.

Most savvy marketers know that every channel in a marketing plan makes the others more effective because of multiple exposures to the same prospects. But many of us in the digital ad industry are stuck with analytics that leave us blind to these multitouchpoint paths, and unable to prove the full value of PPC to our clients.

The outcome is that advertisers ask us to pause part or all of their PPC campaigns, against our advice. And we find that subsequently, their other channels do not perform worse- sometimes significantly worse. (reference value of brand ppc post) This is another indicator that PPC deserves partial credit for sales often not attributed to it.

Why Is Traditional Advertising Not Held Accountable

Advertising on the tube by Sarah G…

Bringing it back to traditional marketing and PR… they are generally not as trackable as digital marketing channels. But my skepticism about their effectiveness is not enough to dismiss them. If scientific marketing has taught me anything, it’s that even experienced, effective marketers are surprised by what does and doesn’t work.

It would be heretical to suggest that genius and experience in advertising are not effective- they are, and inspiration is where the ideas you test come from- but they must be tested scientifically if you want the best results.

Lets combine Ogilvy’s genius with Claude Hopkins’ scientific approach.

How to Track Traditional Media ROI With Web Analytics

So the question is, can we evaluate the effect of traditional media at all, and if so, how?

Awesome billboard! by otakuchick

The easiest way to do it is to use a custom URL… but there are other ways to leverage web analytics to judge the effect of offline marketing and PR.  For example, we had a client that was purchasing billboards in Charlotte, NC- the billboard gave both a phone number and a website URL. First, we looked at the volume of web traffic to the client in the months before the billboards began. Second, we set up call tracking and a unique phone number to track phone results.

A much more vague method, but still better than none at all, is to begin a traditional marketing campaign after you have benchmark web stats for all your other efforts. Analyze your web results before, after, and during the traditional campaign. If there’s an uptick, but it varies by channel, consider whether it makes sense that the traditional campaign would have affected specific ones more and others less. This, again, is imperfect- hindsight is not only 20/20 but also infinitely rationalizable. Explanations of cause and effect behavior can seem compelling but be completely inaccurate.

So good luck

A More Sane Approach to Accountable, Measurable Advertising

Some thoughts about ROI tangible and intangible benefits by cambodia4kidsorg

But my point is, our tracking is imperfect, so we should use it, but lightly- don’t judge any channel too harshly since we don’t have completely clear 360 degree vision of all touchpoints, nor do we yet have a crystal ball to look into customers’ heads, nor are all customers the same, which is obvious when we look at human beings but we seem to forget when we plan campaigns.

The best marketing will be a combination of genius, science, inspiration, luck, and guesswork. Avoid the temptation to believe we have all the answers or are omniscient. Our analytics are not good enough yet to start thinking you’re some kind of advertising god who can see all and control all prospects.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

The Clash of Web and Traditional Advertising

I am very happy to announce that Search & Social Media LLC, the parent company of Search Engine Journal, has recently tapped Scott Polk as our Director of Operations.

In this capacity, Scott will be handling the management of Search & Social client and SEO campaigns, working with the company brass to plan company growth strategy, and also handling business development. Also, expect to see Scott blogging on Search Engine Journal very shortly!

Scott Polk has built his expertise as a knowledgeable and experienced Search Engine Optimization/Internet Marketing strategist for more than 11 years.

He concentrates his resourcefulness and skills on the diversified aspects of Search Engine Optimization for clients, where he’s earned the distinction of consistent top rankings in all major search engines. Scott is consistently involved in technologies that maximize Conversion, Usability and Accessibility when optimizing & developing large web sites as well as identifying problems/solutions that result in major cost saving strategies.

Highly successful and respected within the SEO industry, Scott Polk has consulted and been employed by successful internet companies such as: Bruce Clay, Edmunds.com, AT&T Wireless, ABC News, PGA.com & PGATour.com, Sports Illustrated, Toyota.com, Direct Brands, and numerous others.

Search & Social Media, LLC is a full service SEO, paid search marketing and social media marketing agency founded by David Snyder, Jordan Kasteler and Loren Baker. Search & Social specializes in the integrated mix of social media marketing & SEO, making the most of social media strategies to have a direct effect on client search rankings, traffic and conversion. For more information, call S&S at 1-888-420-4SEO or contact us at http://www.searchandsocial.com/

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Scott Polk Joins Search & Social as Director of Operations

With all of the controversy regarding PageRank sculpting and nofollow links, we can sometimes forget that your internal linking strategy should be keyword-driven.

Use your content to your advantage. Pick out specific high-priority keywords and link to the appropriate pages. If your number one keyword phrase is “link architecture” and you have a page on your website that carries a PageRank of three, use the term link architecture in the first paragraph and link it to the appropriate page.

Step One: Determine your most important keyword phrase. I use tools like Word Tracker, SEM Rush and Google AdWords External Keyword Tool.

Screenshot from Google AdWords External Keyword Tool

Step Two: Write a great page of content. Give useful advice and facts formatted in an easily, readable way. Use bullets and bolded text where appropriate. Don’t worry too much about keyword density. When I was at SMX Advanced, someone asked what’s the right keyword density? The answer from the panel – yes! Make sure the keyword phrase is on the page where appropriate and don’t worry more than that.

Step Three: Use the SeoQuake SeoBar with Yahoo Site Explorer to determine what pages on your website carry PageRank.

Screenshot from Yahoo Site Explorer with SeoQuake SeoBar turned on

Step Four: Once you have determined what pages carry PageRank, review each individual page to determine if the term “link architecture” would fit in the first paragraph somewhere. Please do not make it fit, look for a natural opening. Once you’ve found a place for the phrase, link it to your new page using an absolute link, not a relative link.

Result: You will have a better chance of ranking for your highest priority keyword by using your existing PageRank as leverage.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Achieve High Rankings by Using Your Existing PageRank as Leverage

I already listed a couple of great Greasemonkey scripts combining Bing with Twitter:

This time I am following up with more cool Greasemonkey scripts for early Bing adopters:

1. Bing Numbered Results: add numbers to Bing results:

2. Bing Cleaner: removes sponsored results and moves "Related Searches" to the right (for easier click-through):

3. Google + Bing: adds Bing search results to Google:

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

3 Cool Greasemonkey Scripts That Improve Microsoft Bing

And you thought the “Digg Effect” was bad.  Behold the Yahoo link effect. A link featured at the top of Yahoo’s front page sent more than 9 million page views to an article published on The New York Times’ website during a period of just two hours last week, breaking records for web traffic at the paper. Unfortunately, the massive spike in traffic failed to produce much advertising revenue.

The article to which Yahoo had linked was a Home & Garden piece on bargain house hunting in undesirable locales.  Getting hit at a rate of 7,300 hits per second, the Times was unable to capitalize on the massive audience because they could only serve cheap, remnant ads to the unexpected visitors.  According to the Times, however, if Yahoo had linked to an article in either the Small Business or Theater section, revenue would have likely been much better because there is a higher demand in these sections for expensive advertising.

What’s interesting about this is that small-time web publishers run into the exact same problems that a huge media outlet like the NY Times does – how to capitalize on an unanticipated, massive influx of traffic to a website.  If someone like them can’t figure out how to make adequate revenue on traffic like that, is there any hope for us little guys?

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Yahoo Link Sends Record-Breaking Traffic to New York Times Site

Gyutae Park, a talented blogger and also SEJ contributor, is launching a new a new kind of Internet marketing training program & community today called Winners Circle. What makes this program unique is that it uses case studies, interviews, and examples to show you how to create winning businesses in various niches.

The idea behind the program is that learning be example is the most effective marketing technique.

You’re much better equipped to fully understand and implement a strategy by first seeing it used effectively on a successful site. Furthermore, case studies enable you to see what works and what doesn’t and capitalize on the proven methods for your niche.

What you ar getting:

• A new case study featuring a specific site every week;
• Exclusive interviews sharing real-life success stories;
• Strong community and discussion forums.

How much does it cost?

Currently, it’s $27 per month but the rate will go up to $47 after 200 members or on August 1st, whichever comes first.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Announcing Winners Circle Internet Marketing Training Program and Community

Posted by MikeK@DanconiaMedia

This post was originally in YOUmoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author’s views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.

It’s been said here before: Press releases are much less powerful than they used to be for SEO purposes. While churning out news releases and submitting them to free sites may not do much, the medium can actually be more powerful than ever if used right. Convincing a single reporter or high-profile blogger to pick up your news is infinitely more beneficial than posting worthless releases all over the place and Digg’ing and StumbleUpon’ing them with your multiple accounts.

I have a somewhat unique perspective about news releases. Not too long ago, I worked full-time as a newspaper reporter, and my inbox was regularly inundated with press releases. Some of them caught my attention and were turned into lengthy stories. Others, however, failed to captivate me or my peers and, as a result, went nowhere.

Here are some tips on how to craft your releases in a way that increases the odds of them getting noticed by the media:

Get to the point. Make it clear from the get-go what your release is about. Don’t try to be cute. I used to get releases all the time from PR people who buried the news or tried to get creative with their writing. Sometimes, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what some releases were even about. If you’re looking for a creative outlet, press release writing is not the avenue. Try writing a short story.

At least pretend you’re objective. Obviously, you have a vested interest in what you’re writing about, but it’s still important to craft your releases like down-the-middle news stories. Avoid unnecessary adjectives; most adjectives are unneeded. You don’t want your release to read like an advertisement. Pick out the newsiest element and concentrate on that.

Speak English. I see releases all the time that are stuffed with industry jargon that most people do not understand. Don’t assume that what you’re writing about is a familiar subject for the people who’ll read your release. Dumb it down. Assume your release will be read by the densest guy in the room.

Send it out manually. Instead of just dumping your releases into submission sites and hoping someone important notices, email it yourself to media outlets and bloggers you think might be interested in it. If you’re publicizing a new product, send your release to newspapers in the company’s area. If you can, find out which reporters cover the relevant beat and send it to them directly; that usually only takes a phone call.

Have good timing. If you’re looking for coverage, sending your release out on Election Day or after hours on a Friday is goofy. Those are good times to release bad news you’re obligated to report – any White House spokesman will tell you that – but it’ll do you no good unless your story is wildly sensational. News outlets are typically more desperate for copy during the summer months and around holidays.

Act like a human. Interactivevoices’ post about getting a link from CNN.com – the only PR10 news site – illustrated this perfectly. There’s no harm in picking up the phone and calling reporters directly to see if they’re interested in your story. For all you know, the only thing preventing your news from being published is an over-finicky spam filter.

Don’t beg. When I was working as a reporter, I didn’t realize why some sources were so hellbent on me including links in my stories. Now I know. If your link is relevant to the story, the reporter will probably include it. If not, you’re still getting good publicity.

Of course, all of this will only help if you actually have something worthwhile to say. If you think there’s nothing interesting to say about your enterprise, you’re probably wrong. You just need to think long and hard to figure out what it is.

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