Right Media has agreed to be acquired by Yahoo! Inc.. Following the closing, the Right Media Exchange will operate as a distinct business unit of Yahoo! Inc., and all products related to the Exchange (PMX, NMX, AMX and Direct Media Exchange) will continue on as before. As part of Yahoo!, Remix Media will continue to offer high value solutions to you– our advertiser, agency and publisher customers. Like other exchange networks utilizing the NMX platform, Remix Media will benefit from the increased scale and liquidity of the exchange as a part of Yahoo!.
Here is the press release: Yahoo acquires Right Media
Here are some comments from Bill Wise, President of Remix Media:
The benefits of the acquisition are clear. Yahoo! will add considerably more supply and demand to the Right Media Exchange, increasing liquidity in the market and broadening the opportunity for advertisers, publishers, networks and technology providers alike to grow their businesses. The acquisition will also provide Right Media with access to more resources to continue to accelerate the pace of innovation on the Exchange.
Please note that, as with their investment last October, the acquisition will in no way afford Yahoo! any unfair advantage in the Exchange. A level playing field is one of the foundations of the Exchange and its success-it remains level. The fact that the Right Media Exchange will operate as a distinct business unit of Yahoo! ensures its independence and lack of bias.
All Exchange participants-ad networks, publishers, advertisers, technology providers-will continue to play their crucial roles in the marketplace. Bring your value to the community as you always have, and the community will continually become more valuable to everyone.
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I think that this is a nice move from Yahoo with Google’s news of the Doubleclick acquistion for them to own an ad network similar to DrivePM. Yahoo’s Class 2 network is nice but will be enhanced now by adding thousands of additional publishers outside of the Yahoo network.
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In the hoopla over Google’s purchase of DoubleClick many people didn’t take notice of another company purchased in the sale, Performics
What is the big deal? At first glance Performics simply appears to be the performance-based marketing division of DoubleClick. However after digging a little deeper you also realize that they offer Search Engine Optimization services to their clients.
That’s right - Google now owns one of the largest Search Engine Optimization firms. To me this is a conflict of interest. Only Google knows how its algorithm works, will this knowledge be used to give clients of Performics an unfair advantage over other SEO providers?
A vibrant industry has blossomed in the SEO services sector, from small mom and pop shops to larger full featured agencies. Could the be another area Google is interested in dominating. Clearly with the purchase of Perfomics they are moving in that direction.
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comScore Releases March U.S. Search Engine Rankings
RESTON, Va., April 17, 2007 – comScore released its monthly qSearch analysis of activity across competitive search engines. In March 2007, Google Sites captured 48.3 percent of the U.S. search market, gaining 0.2 share points from the previous month. Yahoo! Sites maintained its second place ranking with 27.5 percent of U.S. searches, followed by Microsoft Sites (10.9 percent), Ask Network (5.2 percent) and Time Warner Network (5.0 percent).
Mar-07 Share of Online Searches by Engine - Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users
Source: comScore qSearch, Total Internet Population
Google Sites
48.3% Share of Online Searches
0.2% Percent Change vs. Previous Month
Yahoo! Sites
27.5%
-0.6%
Microsoft Sites
10.9%
0.4%
Ask Network
5.2%
0.2%
Time Warner Network (AOL)
5.0%
0.1%
• Americans conducted 7.3 billion searches online in March, up 6 percent versus February and 14 percent versus March 2006.
• Google Sites led the pack with 3.5 billion search queries performed, followed by Yahoo Sites (2.0 billion), Microsoft Sites (798 million), Ask Network (379 million), and Time Warner Network (368 million).
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This has been a hot topic recently with a few of our clients that are doing revisions to their existing websites where they want to balance design aesthetic vs. seo value. Most designers make the broad assumption that as long as you use Alt Tags on your images that the search engines will understand what the image represents. While that might be true, it doesn’t mean that the search engines are giving you any relevancy for those keyword links.
Truth is that most of the search engines love anchored text links that have relevant keywords in them and nice easy to read URLs. Here is an example:
Search Marketing Team is going to be so much more relevant to the keyword search “search marketing” then if you had a navigation image link to that page with only ALT text that says ALT=”search marketing team”.
So what are some solutions around this issue to please both the designers and the SEO marketing team. Well if you can’t talk your design team to go with text only navigation links then follow these guidelines:
• Use the title tag in their href’s. For example: a href=””search-marketing-team.html”” title=””Search”
• Be sure to use proper anchor text in your site map to those pages.
• Consider repeating the navigation links as small links in the footer of the site. (see www.dontblink.com for an example)
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Learn the basics on how to use Google AdWords with interactive demos that Google has created. (Requires Macromedia Flash.) Watch the demos and you’ll be able to create your own AdWords account in minutes. Here are the categories they cover in their online demos:
• Google’s Content Network - Learn how the Google Content Network can help your business grow.
• Google Account Navigation - Get acquainted with your AdWords account.
• Billing and Invoicing - Review your monthly invoice at a glance.
• Bid Management and Ranking - Improve your ad position and control your costs.
• Local Targeting - Reach new prospects in specific regional or local areas.
• Understanding Keyword Matching Options - Refine your ad targeting and reduce irrelevant clicks.
• Ad Optimization Tips - Attract more prospects by editing your ads.
• Google Conversion Tracking - Learn which ads are delivering results.
Visit the Google AdWords Library Link Below:
Google AdWords Library
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Google recently posted on their AdWords blog the introduction about a new bidding system based on what you “prefer” to pay. In other words instead of setting a maximum price per bid you are allowed to enter a “preferred” price and Google will attempt to set your average bid a that price point.
From their blog:
“Today, we are introducing a new bidding option called preferred cost bidding — a feature designed to help you save time while achieving your advertising cost goals more consistently. Instead of setting a maximum cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-impression (CPM) bid, you can set a preferred CPC or CPM bid that represents the average price you want to pay.”
Read more Below:
Inside AdWords: Introducing preferred cost bidding
Preferred Cost Bidding Help Center
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After many years of the familiar and ubiquitous “Ads By Gooooogle” Google has finally updated the look of their AdSense advertisements.
They have removed the default border and included an “ads by Google” graphic. While the ability to remove borders and modify AdSense design was always possible via their interface, the ability to modify the “ads by Google” component was never an option.
I think the jury is out on the effectiveness of these ads for both publishers and advertisers, however it is refreshing to see Google experimenting with new designs. Now if only they would let the publishers modify the font treatments we would really be getting somewhere!
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Blaming abuse of the system by data miners MSN announced on March 28th that they will no longer allow the following queries in their search engine - link:, linkdomain: and inurl:
From their blog:
“We are doing our best to get this back online as soon as possible in a manner that allows folks that use this functionality for real queries. We have a few good ideas up our sleeve on how to enable this, but want to make sure we are making the right changes that will give you the functionality you want and all of our customers the experience they deserve.”
You can read more as well as the comments from webmaster who are obviously upset on their blog below.
http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/archive/2007/03/28/we-are-flattered-but.aspx
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A recent study by JupiterResearch has revealed that 25% of US internet users visit social networking sites regularly. This is a whopping 41 million people and potential customers you may be missing if you approach marketing by the traditional search engine placements only.
Its vital in this day and age to expand the reach of your brand to these networks. There are a couple of very important reasons to “go social” with your marketing efforts.
1. It’s free. Almost all of the major social networks such as MySpace are free for people and companies alike to set up a profile and engage with others on the network.
2. It’s simple. These services all use a simply WSIWYG editors to enter your information, customize your page and communicate with others. If you find that you cant figure it out simply ask the teenager in your family to help out. Odds are they are already proficient.
3. It opens up new communication opportunities. Feedback and comments from your customers are vital to stay relevant to them and identify their needs and interests. Your social network presence easily facilitates this communication with your potential and current customers.
So while you plan your internet marketing approach keep those 41 million users in mind and devise a strategy to include social networking.
Below are a few of the social networks which you can utilize as a marketing platform.
MySpace
Hi5
Friendster
Facebook
Bebo
Multiply
LinkedIn
spaces.live.com
Happy Networking!
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There has been a lot of focus from the big players this year on integrating local listings into the search results. If you do a search like “Seattle Advertising Agencies” on Yahoo:
Seattle Advertising Agencies
You will see a few Yellow Book companies results along with Local.com and Local.Yahoo.com. We have been putting a lot of focus ourselves on getting our website properties that have a physical location listed on local sites and directories for SEO link back value. I have listed a few local websites that have free and enhanced listings below:
Local.com (Free and Enhanced listings)
Local.com Business Listing
Yahoo! Local (Free and Enhanced listings)
Create Listing on Yahoo! Local
List Your Business on CitySearch.com (Paid Listings)
CitySearch.com List Your Business
Google Local (Free Listings)
Google Local Business Center
* Be sure that you have a Yahoo! email address already when you submit to Yahoo! Local. You can get your business listed for free on Yahoo and can also enhance your listing with photos ($9.95 / month) or have it listed as a featured site within your category for a fee.
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