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In This Issue:
Yahoo Using Google Results
So after months of speculation,
Yahoo finally announced that they would continue their relationship
with Google. The biggest surprise however, is that Yahoo has opted for
a strategy that goes beyond merely maintaining the relationship. As of
October 10th, Yahoo directory results and Google web pages will no
longer be shown separately and will instead be combined to provide new
Web Matches. These Web Matches will be the combined results of both
Yahoo and Google indexes, but displayed using Yahoo's own algorithm.
This combined structure moves away from the previous arrangement
whereby Yahoo only displayed Google results when there were no Yahoo
directory results for a particular search query. With the new Web
Matches, you will no longer see the Google logo appearing in the top
left of the screen and the only way you will be able to determine that
a result has been drawn from the Yahoo directory, as opposed to
Google, will be a link under the listing that reads "More sites about"
and a red arrow graphic. This link will allow Yahoo users to click
through to the Yahoo directory to view more websites within the same
theme. While the new search results will use a Yahoo algorithm,
initial testing has shown that this algorithm is very similar to
Google's own, and in some cases it can be very difficult to see a
difference between the order of Yahoo's results and those of Google.
So, what does this change mean for
anyone looking for high positioning on Yahoo? Well, the biggest
question centers on the benefit of paying $299 to be listed in the
Yahoo directory. While there are Yahoo users who navigate through the
directory of human edited listings, most prefer to use the search
function to locate the product or service they are seeking. With this
in mind, most companies will be able to utilize the traffic from Yahoo
without having to pay the $299 a year that was once the only way of
securing any chance of top positioning on the Yahoo search engine
results.
Shoppers
Use Search Engines
Studies of online buying patterns
consistently reveal that the online sale begins with a search engine
listing. Jupiter found that 55 percent of e-commerce transactions
originated from a search engine link. User survey
reported 84.8 percent of users find Web pages through search engines,
and 85.7 percent of these are searching with intent to buy.
How good is your search engine
visibility? If it's lacking, here's what you can do to ensure being
found by online shoppers.
- Ensure that your site is legible
with good navigation and consistency in layout. It should load
quickly and permit users to find information easily. Navigation is
particularly important for both customers and search engines. In
sum, search engine spiders like keyword-rich text, navigation that's
easy to crawl, and quality content that attracts in-bound links.
- Use your strategic keyword
phrases several times in your Web page copy, but don't overdo it and
don't repeat the same word consecutively. Your most important text
is that in your title tags and in the visible text at the top of
each page. This is the first thing your audience reads so it must be
compelling for customers and keyword-optimized for search engines.
- It's
important to have a number of quality sites linked to yours. This is
accomplished a lot easier if your site is well designed and displays
relevant content. Seek links from sites offering information of
interest to your target audience.
Pay Per Click Fraud
Let's say you set your account up on
Overture, and you place $500 to buy keywords for the next month.
You’re happy with your purchase and you can't wait ‘til the next day
when the phone will start ringing, and the emails will come flooding
in.
You go to your computer the next
morning, log on to the advertiser interface and notice that you have
gone through your entire monthly budget overnight -- and you haven’t
received a single email or phone call!
You've most likely just been a
victim of click fraud.
Click Fraud is when a business
receives invalid clicks on paid listings by a competitor or individual
who has no intention of using their services. A click is invalid when
an individual does it for the sole purpose of costing you money, or
causing you financial harm. Click Fraud may occur from competing
advertisers or simply individuals who want to harm or frustrate
others.
When a Web user goes to Overture
directly, or any of the Overture partner sites, the user cannot simply
hit a site repeatedly on the same keyword and accumulate chargeable
clicks. Overture's system monitors the usage through an elaborate
proprietary filter that looks at each click to determine its validity.
So mischievous individuals will
often execute click fraud through Overture's partner sites so that it
is harder to detect the fraudulent activity.
For instance, take the keyword
"health insurance". If you were to go into Overture and click on any
of the links to the sites who bid for their position, you will cause
the business to pay for that click. On the other hand, if you back out
and click the site again (from the same page) the second click will
not accrue charges to the client's account.
However, when that same user goes to
another network partner, like Yahoo! or AltaVista, types in the same
keyword, and clicks on the same Web site, it
can -- and usually will -- count against the bidding client’s account.
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