Search engine land reported today the release of some new functional by ask which allows a user to upload their own personal background image for the search engine.  The functionality to add a skin to the background has been available since last year but this was only for predetermined images and wasn’t customisable.  I like the idea of customising the results page and this is a much simpler solution than Google’s which involves xml information rather than a simple image upload.  It is also much more flexible and interesting than msn and yahoo’s offerings which only allow the selection of different colour palletes for the page.

This functionality is just another stage in the battle for search engine supremacy but also for loyalty within internet users through added value.  Yahoo had this a long time ago through positioning itself as an information portal and one stop shop for your internet needs (email, news, sport, search…) a similar position taken by MSN.  Then Google smashed this with its simplicity and accuracy of results.  But even the big G has recognised the need to give people more and through iGoogle struck a balance between information on the page and usability by allowing the user to choose which information feeds they received.  The issue at the bottom of all of this is keeping people using your page/engine, setting it as their homepage, and a base for all their online activities.  If they can use your site for everything they need online whey would they go elsewhere?  The longer a user in on your site, the more searches they do, the more ads they view, the more ads they click, the more money you make! Simple.  Expect a lot more releases like in this in the next 12 months as the battle continues.

It’ll take a lot more functionality for Yahoo, Ask or MSN to catch Google but I do know people who now use the Yahoo homepage as they prefer it to Google so there is some movement going on.   You can check out the Ask function on the US site here, it is not yet available in the UK.

I have been reading up recently on tracking solutions I came across the argument between first click and last click tracking. More specifically which one gives the most accurate measure of performance?

First click tracking is the term given to solutions which cookie the user on their first visit to a website and record the source of their visit.  On each subsequent visit they are recognised as the same visitor and allocated back to the original source and so when they convert through to sale/application/sign up the software records them this as the origin of the conversion.

Last click tracking relies on session cookies and so no matter how many times a user visits a site, the source of their conversion will be recorded as the final means by which they reached the site.

So which is a more accurate measure of advertising performance? Well its difficult to say really.  Display advertisers will normally put the argument across for first click tracking as they play the brand card a lot more and place their strength in building awareness of offers and products.  Some of them even cookie a user on ad impression so would even more stringently argue this case.

Search advertisers on the other hand are more likely to lean towards the argument for last click tracking as users will often use search results to find brand and products they already know they want to buy.  Regardless of where they found out about them a user is more likely to visit Google and search on a brand or product name to complete their purchase.

I’m more likely to not worry about it and assess online as a whole rather than worrying about each channel in isolation.  More and more recently I have noticed the effect the channels have on each another and I am now suggesting the holistic approach to online is the best way to go.  Conversion attribution is a difficult skill and requires a highly sophisticated piece of tracking software.  By pulling one channel you could quite easily find that although when analysed in isolation it didn’t appear to work, it was having a positive affect on another channel and you see a drop off across the board by its removal.

My advice? Although all channels need to be measured, pay careful consideration to the impact they may be having on one and other.  Look at online as a whole to measure performance before making any decisions as the halo effect exists and if you pull one brick from the tower, it could all come tumbling down!

Not rocket science but puts forward some interesting points. This is what I have believed and have told clients for a while. There is no sense in managing PPC and SEO as seperate entities when they are formed from the same model. Also this becomes even more prevelant as the paid search engines all revert to a qulity scoring system which accounts for landing pages in the same way as the natural search algorithms.

Yes, Co-managed PPC And SEO Campaigns Work

by Rob Garner, Wednesday, March 28, 2007
IN LATE February we released our Search Synergy Report, which demonstrates that there is indeed a lift in search campaigns that have both a paid and natural search component. These findings support similar studies presented by SEO-PR and Yahoo/Nielsen ReelResearch on the exponential benefits of and lift from holistically managed search campaigns.
The study sought to answer the following question: “Does running a natural search campaign and a paid search campaign together create more value than running them in a non-integrated manner?” In the end, the evidence revealed that the answer to this question is an overwhelming yes.
Among the findings, the report shows:
A causal relationship between paid and natural was confirmed, and the results were significantly positive. These happy results came when running paid and natural search in a cohesive, integrated manner, particularly when visibility was maximized for a particular keyword in both the paid and natural sections of a search engine results page. We also confirmed other eye-tracking and holistic research studies that reveal the dynamic interplay between paid and natural results on the search engine results pages, and that search is not an either/or proposition.
One plus one equals three. Not only did the research show that positive results increased (to the effect of appearing twice) but there was also extra lift from the additional visibility.
Running natural and paid search together (versus running them alone) in an integrated manner will drive superior results for branding and lead generation. When appearing in both natural and paid search for the same keyword impression, clicks lifted 92 percent, actions lifted 45percent, orders lifted 45 percent, page views lifted 44 percent, visitors increased by 41 percent, and time on site increased by 40 percent.
Natural search optimization is one of the strongest tactics for increasing paid search performance. Imagine that your paid copy is so tweaked so that it can be tweaked no more; your call-to-action has been massaged to entice clicks that exceed industry standards; and your sophisticated ROI measurement tools show that position 2.4 is the sweet spot for the highest conversion rate. So where do you go from there? The research indicates that while natural presence creates overall click lift, it can also create overall paid search lift. If your paid terms are converting, then a tactic for increasing those high converting clicks is increasing natural search visibility.
So how do these findings impact holistic search strategies?
Look to high performance keywords in paid search, and begin optimizing for these terms in natural search. If all copy and paid rank optimization has been maxed out for conversion performance, the next logical step is to increase visibility on the natural SERP for that keyword to attain additional click share. Impressions are relatively finite, so increasing page visibility in natural search is a sensible way to maximize the potential for high-converting terms.
Look for high performance keywords in your natural results, and ensure that these terms are added to paid campaigns. If you want to get more of a good thing, maximize your visibility on the page for that term, including adding the term to paid results. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to bid aggressively to maximize visibility and conversions. Get in the paid game for high converting terms, and find your ROI comfort zone, whether it’s at no.1, no.3 or no.6.
Increase natural presence; decrease paid spend. For certain types of ROI goals, particularly those running on leaner margins, it may be very sensible to reduce PPC bids once high natural visibility is achieved. If you are bottoming out in paid search every month, and lack a significant natural presence, it would be worthwhile to add a significant natural search component, and then tweak positions in PPC accordingly to effectively increase ROI.
Consider defensive brand term strategies. Note that neglecting holistic strategies could let high-performance clicks go somewhere else. In other words, being exclusively in paid search or natural search means that there is some click attrition. The best way to reduce click attrition is to be as highly visible in the SERP as possible, and your two basic choices are paid and natural placements.
Consider addressing multiple search intentions between paid and natural listings: If you find that paid search generates more ROI at the point of conversion and is generally more commercial in presentation, this could be countered with more informational content ranking highly in natural results. Brand visibility is attained in both areas of the page, but the discerning searcher would have two content options from the same query that meets multiple intentions at varying stages of the “funnel” process.