Posts Tagged ‘SERPS’

Search Engine Marketing – Jargon Buster

Friday, August 20th, 2010

The Serious/Not Serious Series on Jargon:

YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS:

Successful Search Engine Marketing (SEM) involves you being the cyber equivalent of an obnoxious child. The type who always takes the teacher a shiny apple, sits at the front in class and shoots their eager hand up at every opportunity squealing, “Me, Miss, pick me!”

It’s about getting noticed. Of course in cyberspace nobody can hear you screaming, “I’m the best and I must be at the front of the line!” so you have to find other ways to get seen.

If Google is the mother pedagogue in our hypothetical SERPS school, then other search engines like Yahoo!* are sort of like supply teachers. We don’t know them as well as we know Mistress Google, we don’t always trust that they know what they’re doing either, but we must please them all the same. It’s worth buying an extra apple from time to time.

Mistress Google doesn’t always expect A* work from her pupils. Sometimes all you need to do is suck up a bit more and make yourself known to her. She likes to keep an eye on her charges. When it’s head count time will yours be the high visibility noggin that gets included? It will if you’re on stilts and donning a psychedelic plumed hat.

How will being teacher’s pet affect your relationships with your online peers? Oh, they’ll probably flick bits of saliva-sodden paper at you, shove your head down the toilet at lunch times and stick ‘Kick Me’ notices on your back. Oh well. Popularity doesn’t always mean being popular.

Note: * Can’t recall the names of the other search engines/supply teachers – though there are vaguely disturbing recollections of one of them drinking hooch under the desk and another being asked to leave after an embarrassing incident in Pet’s Club that startled a stick insect and several guinea pigs.

SERIOUSLY:

SEM (aka Search Engine Marketing) is a type of marketing where you promote your website by increasing its visibility in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages). The purpose of using SEM is to ensure that your website is visible in the search results when a user enters a query relevant to your business  in the search box.

Sometimes SEM is used to describe paid placements only. The ads on the right hand side of the search results page are examples of paid placements. These are usually CPC (Cost Per Click) ads but you can also purchase them as CPI (Cost Per Impression). With CPC ads, you as the advertiser only pay when a user clicks through on the ad. With CPI ads, you pay based on the number of times the particular ad is shown.

The SEM term actually extends beyond paid placements as it also includes SEO (Search Engine Optimization). As mentioned in a previous post SEO involves increasing the chances that your website will show high up in the unpaid search results. Users are more likely to click through to the unpaid search results as they have, to some extent, developed a certain blindness to PPC (“Pay per Click”) ads.

Other Resources:

There’s a  post over at Interleado’s blog which provides an insightful  analysis of SEO v PPC marketing strategies. As mentioned above, both SEO (unpaid Search Marketing) and PPC (paid search marketing) fall under the heading of Search Engine Marketing. Bill Egan extols the benefits of investing in SEO and he stresses the importance of investing in fresh engaging content as part of your SEO strategy. The Interleado blog is quite technical at times. However, it is well-written and very clear.

Other Jargon Buster Articles:

Attraction Marketing;  Buzz Marketing;  Content Marketing; Content Strategy;  Duplicate Content;  Fresh Content; Interruption Marketing; Linkerati;  PageRank; Permission Marketing; SEO;  SERPS;  The Cloud; User Experience

Welcome to The Wittery Blog (aka The Witty Writer Marketplace)

You’re in the right place if you’re looking for Witty Freelance Writers to add zest to your business content. (Simply click here,  click the Register button [remembering to wipe your feet first] and give us some info about you. We don’t do spam (can’t stand the taste). There’s even a limited free trial where you can post your project for free.)

Witty Freelance Writer with a burning desire to join the wit mob? Click here, remove your shoes and then come through to the application form (you can’t miss it. It says “Apply”)

If you’d prefer to follow the scenic route instead, start off at the home page. See you soon.


Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Jargon Buster - Serious/Not Serious Series, Witto | No Comments »

Interruption Marketing – Jargon Buster

Friday, July 16th, 2010

The Serious/Not Serious Series on Jargon

YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS:

Interruptions are a universal nuisance. This is such a fundamental truth that the phrase “rudely interrupted” contains the redundant word “rudely”. There is no other way to be interrupted.

Salmon, for instance, do not eat when they leave the sea and return to their home river to spawn. So why do they bite the bright, colorful feathers presented by the angler? Because there they were floating gracefully thinking about getting laid when they were interrupted.

There is a similar situation for humans. Sitting down at their favorite restaurant, a couple read the menu. As they begin to salivate (partly because of the fare on offer) the fire alarm  goes off, interrupting them, and they have to leave the building. Damn! Don’t you just hate premature evacuations?

Online users are similarly plagued by interruptions; unsolicited offers to click, casinos where they can’t lose, pills guaranteed to increase the length and girth of their penis (Mothers Superior especially hate these), surveys to complete, eternal youth and guaranteed happiness, and any other bait that will be swallowed by the gullible.

The professional interrupters who provide the ads are only kept in business by the fact that some users, like the salmon, react violently to the bait and snap at it. Computer geeks aren’t salmon and don’t have a temper; they only bite humorous ads because they don’t understand them.

SERIOUSLY:

Interruption Marketing is the scruffy cousin of permission marketing and engagement marketing.  It’s a traditional form of marketing. It’s where the marketing message intrudes on the potential customer’s activities and fights for their attention. It’s where the marketer seeks out places where potential customers hang out and then subjects those targets to ads.

Types of marketing which come within this category include PPC Ads (eg Facebook ads, Google PPC), TV ads, Billboard ads, unsolicited marketing emails, newspaper ads.  These ads interrupt your current activity (eg you’re watching television, reading the paper, updating your Facebook Status) in order to bring you the marketing message.

It is widely accepted that interruption marketing is not as effective as other types of marketing such as permission marketing and attraction marketing. As the amount of marketing messages we come across on a daily basis continues to increase, humans are finding creative ways of ignoring these messages. For example, we increasingly tend to become blind to PPC ads in the SERPS and concentrate only on the organic (unpaid) search results.

As we (the customer/consumer) become immune to interruptive marketing techniques, advertisers and marketers are finding new ways to deliver their marketing message.  Hence the steady increase in alternative marketing techniques such as permission marketing, content marketing and engagement marketing.

Although interruption marketing is declining in its effectiveness, it still has a place in today’s marketing bag of tricks. When using interruption marketing as a tool, it’s more important than ever to ensure that you engage the customer as soon as you have interrupted them and got their attention.

RESOURCES:

Susan Gunelius has an informative article over at Entrepreneur.com where she explores the comparative techniques of interruption and engagement marketing. It’s somewhat ironic that a large advertisement/interruptive marketing message appears slap bang in the middle of the piece.  However, it helps to show that interruption marketing is not quite ready to make its funeral arrangements just yet.

Other Jargon Buster Articles:

Attraction Marketing;  Buzz Marketing;  Content Strategy;  Duplicate Content; Linkerati;  PageRank; SEO;  SERPS;  The Cloud; User Experience

Welcome to The Wittery Blog (aka The Witty Writer Marketplace)

You’re in the right place if you’re looking for Witty Freelance Writers to add zest to your business content. (Simply click here,  click the Register button [remembering to wipe your feet first] and give us some info about you. We don’t do spam (can’t stand the taste). There’s even a limited free trial where you can post your project for free.)

Witty Freelance Writer with a burning desire to join the wit mob? Click here, remove your shoes and then come through to the application form (you can’t miss it. It says “Apply”)

If you’d prefer to follow the scenic route instead, start off at the home page. See you soon.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Jargon Buster - Serious/Not Serious Series, Witto | No Comments »

SERPS – Jargon Buster

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

The Serious/Not Serious Series on Jargon

YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS:

SERPS is an internet word that stands for “Stop Entering Restricted Porn Sites”. It is used as a warning sign that appears to sleazy surfers when they repeatedly try to access highly unsuitable web pages.

Being clever, those running the internet know not just what search term has been entered, but what are the intentions of the user. (This is known as “Just Ask Core Knowledge On Form Filtering” or JACKOFF.)  For example, users who search for “how many laid” will get different results depending on whether their previous search was for “fresh eggs” or “Debbie Does Dallas”.

The SERPS warning appears after 69 consecutive rude search phrases, although teenagers do not usually get this far.

“Stop Entering Restricted Porn Sites” is not just a warning sign. It is not a “suggestion” from the search engine either, it is a command. As well as the full-screen warning sign, the computer of the user is infected with a virus. SERPS may therefore be thought of as the virtual clap, and it cannot be cured, even with a visit to www.cure-my-pox.com

No, SERPS is serious, and results in the destruction of the user’s online life. No respectable website will go near a SERPS-infected user, especially not www.virgin.com.

SERIOUSLY:

SERPS stands for Search Engine Result Pages. They are the pages that are returned by  search engines  (ok, let’s just call this Google from here) when you enter a query in the search box. The pages contain a list of website pages that Google (Bing, Cuil) thinks are relevant to your search term.  Your site is likely to benefit from organic (unpaid) traffic if it appears in the organic listing on Page 1 of the SERPS.

Let’s Get Personal

Things are happening with SERPS.  Personalized SERPS is now here to stay and it will be interesting to watch the effect of this on traditional SEO practices over time. Personalization of the SERPS means different users get different SERPS results, depending on their browsing history.  Google is serving up results which it thinks are best suited to you, based on what it knows about you (and it knows way more than you think).

Personalized SERPS is the default setting and most users are unlikely to change the default setting.  Personalized SERPS applies even if you’re not logged into a Google Account.

As a website owner, it’s important to be aware when you’re being served personalized SERPS. The reason?  If you check your site’s SERPS on a regular basis, you’ll get a false sense of where your website appears in the SERPS for others. Google will return your most visited sites high up in your personalized SERPS results. You may end up gloating that your site is appearing in the number one position for your search term, when in fact it could be buried deep down in the SERPS for other users.

Incognito

There are a few ways to get a better indication of where your website appears in the SERPS for others. One of those ways  is to go “incognito” using Google Chrome (please correct me if I’m wrong on this one).  Get your dark shades and grubby rain mac on before taking the following steps:

  1. Click on the wrench icon at the top right of the Google Chrome Screen.
  2. Click on “New Incognito Window”.
  3. “You’ve gone incognito” the new window tells you.  There’s even a spy icon to remind you what you are up to.
Ignorance Can Be Bliss

Probably the best way to improve your site’s positioning in the SERPS? Try Ignoring it most of the time. Don’t spend too much time trying to understand Google and how its algorithm works. Try to understand your users instead.

Concentrate your efforts on developing your engaging content, learning to understand and connect with your website visitors, building relationships and working on elements that will improve the User Experience.  Your efforts in these areas will help your site in the battle for position across personalized SERPS.  These efforts will also help you to get traffic from sources other than search engines. Whilst you’re chasing after your position in the SERPS remember that the search engines are chasing after websites that are optimized for the User Experience. Remember also that SERPS is very fond of dancing.

How much attention do you pay to your website’s position in the SERPS? Do you spend as much time concentrating on User Experience Optimization?

Other Jargon Buster Articles:

Attraction Marketing;  Buzz Marketing;  Content Strategy;  Duplicate Content;  Linkerati; PageRank;  SEO; The Cloud; User Experience

Other Resources:

Nathan Thompson has an informative post over at MarketingExperiments.com which covers the effect that the roll-out of Google Caffeine will have on SERPS results. It is well worth a read. We mentioned  Caffeine in January in this blog. Google announced last week that this new indexing system is now complete. The essential thing to note about Caffeine is that it aims is to provide fresher results to users. In the context of content, this will of course mean that fresh content will continue to become more important and will influence where your website shows up in the SERPS.

Welcome to The Wittery Blog (aka The Witty Writer Marketplace)

You’re in the right place if you’re looking for Witty Freelance Writers to add zest to your business content. (Simply click here,  click the Register button [remembering to wipe your feet first] and give us some info about you. We don’t do spam (can’t stand the taste). There’s even a limited free trial where you can post your project for free.)

Witty Freelance Writer with a burning desire to join the wit mob? Click here, remove your shoes and then come through to the application form (you can’t miss it. It says “Apply”)

If you’d prefer to follow the scenic route instead, start off at the home page. See you soon.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Jargon Buster - Serious/Not Serious Series, Witto | No Comments »