The Digital Lookout

I spotted something today in the Yahoo Search results I had not seen before.  Now this isn’t to say it hasn’t been around for a while as I can confess to rarely using Yahoo and relying on Google for my search fix mostly because of my iGoogle homepage.

What I found when I searched for virus protection specialist bullguard were notifications in the natural search listings marking the site which had potentially dangerous downloads and spyware potential.  The site in question was Kazaa which was listed twice in the SEO results, both listed accompanied by the message “Warning: Dangerous Downloads“.  This is the first time I have ever seen this warning before in the search results and I would be interested to find out whether it is a manual label on specific sites or if it is picked up automatically in some way.  Either way it is great for the user to see such warnings and catastrophic for the site as I certainly now I would be steering clear of clicking them.

yahoo show spyware warnings in seo results

In a recent report into “Online Solutions” aimed at imparting advice on how to develop an effective web presence American Express have advised companies not to “waste money” on search engin optimisation specialists.  Apparently suggetsing that this is a sure fire way to get your site banned from the listings.  This is a very strong statement and one which Im sure please their incumbent SEO agency, Greenlight!  Imagine being the agency for a company who makes a statement like that! Cant fill you with much confidence for your next contract renewal.  I wonder whether the phrase “expensive” and the warning about being penalised refer directly to Greenlight’s work or whether this is jus a coincidence!?!

The full article is here and I have copied the offending paragraph below:

—  optimize your search engines

Search engines, like Yahoo! and Google, are usually the first place people will look for you. Make it easier for them to find you. Yahoo! and Google offer tools to let them know the site map structure of your Web site. Also, using clean U.R.L.s such as yourdomain.com/store/widgets instead of yourdomain.com/store.php?id=42&categoryID=widgets will increase your chances of getting indexed in a search engine. Finally, don’t waste money on so-called Search Engine Optimization (S.E.O.) specialists. Search engines are very quick to penalize sites that try to trick their filtering techniques, and once your site has been put on Google’s blacklist, it will take forever to get off.

I spotted something on Google today which I hadn’t seen before and is a new development in universal search.  On a search for “times” I was presented with the standard search results you get for a brand term but then in addition to this there was a search box contained with the results! On entering a search phrase into this box I was presented with the site search results but still with the Google SERP.  This functionality is well known and nothing new but the inclusion of the search box in the results is not something I have seen before. 

It is obviously just another element of Universal Search in action but is alos a good tool for Google to make their results as accurate as possible and keep people within their pages.  By allowing them to search within Google for keywords contained within a site you are not only enhancing the user experience but promoting loyalty and boosting query numbers at the same time, win all round.  On top of this they are also able to produce additional Adwords results on the secondary search and potentially boosting revenues as well.

Ive finally gotten round to having a little think about the big news story of the week, Microsoft tabling a bid of $44.6 Billion in cash and stock to buy its rival Yahoo.  There has been no official comment from Yahoo on the reports but I thought Id document my thoughts on the impace this could have.

The portal market

Yahoo and MSN are the two big players in the portal market, the one stop shop for all you web needs, search engine, web mail, news feed, weather reports, all in one place.  This is where Microsoft will gain a massive advantage and pretty much gain complete dominance.  Aside from the ISP sites, which gain their visitors through having a default homepage setting in the ISP setup process, Microsoft will have a dominance in this field comparable to Google’s in the search market (more of that in a minute!).  So what does this mean to MSN? Well instantly they will take on board the lions share of the portal advertising revenues around the world.  Yahoo has built an advertising model which is highly lucrative and brings in a huge amount of revenue each year, utilising the latest behavioural targeting technology to keep online advertising moving forward.  MSN obviously has its own advertising model and ideas on how the market is going to advance but they will automatically boost their ad revenues with the purchase.  It also sets them up well for the predicted rise in online ad spend over the next few years, from $40 billion to $80 billion if you believe the predictions, dominance in a market this size is a mouth watering prospect.

The search market

This is where it gets really interesting.  Microsft has struggled to gain a foothold in the search market since it launched its own PPC model in 2006 and I forecasted in a previous post (Microsoft sets its sights on 40% market share) that a purchase may be on the cards if they were to achieve their targets.  The purchase of Yahoo Search Marketing (YSM), if part of the deal, would possibly take their market share into the double figures in the paid search arena.  Their system is good at present, the quality of their traffic is good, its just the volume they have been missing.  YSM would help boost this and make them a legitimate number 2 in this arena and they undoubtedly have the fire power to make dents in Google’s dominance (see their response here).  It does raise the question, what does this mean to search agencies?  the market which was due to fragment with the launch of wikia search, AOL breaking out in the US, Ask hinting at the same, is now significantly consolidated if this deal does actually go through.  Does this make SEM simpler? Not really but it could be perceived that way, a post for another time I think.

How do they manage it?

This will be interesting, does Yahoo become Microsoft branded?  or is it just another property of the technology giant?  Does it become Microhoo? Yasoft? Mahoo? or does it become Yahoo - a Microsoft company? and more importantly for internet marketers do they keep the two infrastructures separate, the advertising interfaces, the search algorithms, the display advertising models.  This is what will be the key determinant of what this means to the industry and what it means to digital agencies.

Whether the deal goes through remains to be seen, when it goes through is another question yet to be answered. What is undeniable is that it is going to influence the online advertising market significantly, in what way, remains to be seen.

The personalisation of search results is well documented and evidence of its arrival is clear to see particularly in the Google results. I have blogged in the past about the differing search results based on search history, the listings of site visits and also the use of IP information as a targeting tool.

But what does this all mean to advertisers? What impact is this going to have on your search marketing activity?

Position Variances

If the search engines are going to begin giving prominence to previously visited sites then you can expect variance in positions with then search engine results. For a user who has visited your site before you could be ranked top where as to a new user you could be lower down the results. This effectively is the same model as is used in the PPC listings with the metric click through rate (CTR) however this would occur at the individual level rather than the keyword.

If this begins to occur it will create confusion with advertisers as you will there will be no accurate measure of what position you are actually ranking in. This will make the performance metric of position redundant.

We are seeing this already in the PPC market with one user seeing an ad in a completely different position to another based on their search history. This makes managing a campaign much more complicated and needs to be fully considered when devising strategies.

Advance Targeting

On the positive note, this could, if used intelligently, allow advertisers to target their natural search campaigns to their key demographic. Although the basics of SEO will be needed to achieve a decent position in the first place once this is in place effective use of creative and website copy could lead to a increased performance for a particular segment and so increased positions. This will be dependant on the extent personalisation takes effect and will need a very clever implementation but should be possible.

I’m sure there will be more effects which come about as a result of the continued personalisation of results with in the search engines but for now these are the key two. What this space, it’s going to get increasingly complicated!