Crack the Yahoo! search algorithm

You could spend years trying to build up an "organic" search results presence in Yahoo! (as I have), or you could just create a Facebook page and feature almost instantly! Baffling how the algorithm can skew so heavily to one platform overnight ... yours in head-scratching bewilderment.

03 AUGUST 2009 - In a follow up to the above observation, it's important to note a couple of this week's revelations:
1. Microsoft and Yahoo! search will partner to become one (provided the deal is approved). The underlying search mechanic will be powered by Bing, with integration of Yahoo! technologies and intelligence. Interestingly, similar search queries conducted on Bing also render a higher number of social listings than would Google. Already the synergies between the two powerhouses of digital, Microsoft and Yahoo!, are evident, as is their calling-card; the next era of search result relevancy lies with the people, i.e. social networks. Google even admits that it is a pace behind real-time information relay, with Twitter search a forerunner. Cue Bing!
2. It's not just any old Facebook page that is being listed on my surfboard-related search terms, it is that of Mark McGuire, Powersource Surfboards. He is one of Ireland's few surfboard shapers, and his website features strongly in search results. That interconnection bolsters Yahoo!'s argument for a social listing on a search for "surfboards Ireland". My counter-argument remains; why list for the person when I am looking for a product? I already know that I am fighting a losing battle however. As the lines blur between people and organisations, and information becomes the new form of production, knowing Mark is knowing surfboards!

Banks: A Lesson in Saving

Irish banks are marketing like fury in a bid to stay liquid. Capital deposits are the bedrock of any bank. Although ECB interest rates are plummeting, banks are grappling for customers by offering competitive current and deposit account rates. We've been bombarded by television, print and billboard media that screams out for our business - our money in other words. How does that translate online? Of course, there are banner advertisements dotted all over Irish portals like Ireland.com, but with 81% of Irish web-users visiting search engines every day¹, the value of marketing within this channel cannot be discounted.

First port of call will generally be the quick fix - Google Adwords. It's instant search engine exposure, at a cost. Marketing managers of old relate to this model, whereby creative is built, media purchased, and the campaign goes live. It gets results! Adwords offers a premium opportunity to see in Google results. With 30% of Irish search users clicking on "sponsored links"¹, Google ads guarantee digital presence, on a pay per click basis. Where they differ to the traditional mechanic of say, buying screen-time, or negotiating print agreements at a fixed cost, is that the market (Google, its' advertisers and its' users) determines how much it will cost to achieve an eye-catching placement on the results page.

Returning to the cash-strapped banks, it pays to employ savvy Google Adwords management in determining choice of keywords (those search terms for which the advert appears to users of Google), and instruction on the threshold (maximum cost per click) of willingness to pay. Banks may be tempted to corner the market. It can seem all to obvious - the bank is offering an attractive interest rate on its' savings account, so for every time someone in Ireland (be careful not to flog financial products to the U.S by default) queries Google in relation to "savings accounts", the bank's advert should show up. Do this, and according to Google, bank's can anticipate a cost of as much as €3.79 a click²!
Instead, go back and engage in keyword research - Google indicates that on average 4,400 searches are conducted a month with "savings account" in mind. Lateral investigation into the minds of Irish Googlers reveals the low-hanging fruit that doesn't fall far from the savings tree. "High yield savings accounts" is a term typed into Google in Ireland just as many times as "savings account". Closely followed by "high interest rate savings accounts", "instant access savings account", and "high interest checking account". In-depth understanding into the psyche of the relevant digital market delivers the competitive advantage to leverage campaign initiatives to an efficient, targeted level, where media wastage is curtailed and advertising impacts on consumers at the right stage of the research life-cycle. Think about it logically, will a generic inquiry about savings accounts, or one that specifies that the customer is in the market for an instant access savings account convert more frequently? Immediately with the latter, banks are poised to deliver a savings product to suit, rather than an off-the-shelf, one-size-fits-all solution. Better still, they've saved €3.79 for every visit to the bank's website, as these niche terms, with lower numbers of competing advertisers³, cost less!

Success with Adwords can be the catalyst that swings marketing managers attention to the rest of the search results page - the natural listings. The attraction of course is that no money changes hands with Google in this instance. For the business to feature in search results, their website must convey through comprehensive, specific content the market needs to which the bank caters. In steps that elusive acronym; SEO (search engine optimisation). All the website optimisation in the world may be in vain however should that priceless consumer insight previously gleaned from Adwords not be employed. In this market-led search industry, an intelligent SEO strategy will heed market signals and adapt to consumer choice. A cursory overview of the Google results pages displays marked differences in how many website pages an Irish bank's website has to contend with depending on search conducted, 33 million when it comes to "savings account", vis-a-vis, quarter of a million on "high yield savings account" (7% the number for "savings account"). Given that savings account queries, qualified by product feature, have both search volume, and are proportionately uncompetitive, the green fields of natural search marketing roll out into the distance.

Sources:
¹Interactive Return, survey conducted at Search Marketing World 2009, Dublin, Ireland.
²Average CPC varies depending on keyword settings, and advertisement's historical performance (quality score).
³The results page on Google.ie features 25 advertisers in the sponsored links panel for the term "savings account". "Instant access savings account" by comparison registers less than half (10) that number of Google Adwords competitors.

Mayday Mayday Mayday

I'm an advocate for Google. Their services deliver what I am looking for (and a lot more besides) at no material cost. The stealth tax is that of invasion; of privacy and of screen-space. Google posted a $1.4 billion Q1 profit for 2009. To amass these fortunes, Google must first become intimate with users (privacy) and then serve bespoke advertising (screen-space). Google is the quintessential American company. Reverse-engineered and consumer-focused, it first looks to gaps in the marketplace, fills them, then questions where the revenue stream will stem from. Their IPO in August 2004 put this socialist approach at loggerheads with the rigorous demands of shareholders for growth, the hallmark of capitalism. To date, few would argue Google's success, but as the western business model unravels before our recession-weary eyes, I get a niggling sense of self-destruction in the Googleplex. The train smash may be some way down the line, but the financial world's woes would advise prudence. Time to exercise the option to bundle and sell-off Google off-shoot enterprises, surplus to the core business model, rather than gorge on acquisition?

In practice, Google continues to diversify like wild-fire. Once a search engine built to index the web (text web-pages) and return the most relevant results to users, Google now lays claim to digital content of any form. Where there is a market for content, Google looks to take ownership, serve at a fraction of competitors' cost, or for free, (thereby winning the user-base), and then integrate highly relevant in-line advertising at the point of consumption. Two enormous projects brought to market lately involve books and music.

The Irish times reports that in China, Google is distributing more than 1 million music tracks to its users for free. A clever tactic in a bid to unearth Baidu's roots as premier domestic search engine, this strategic shift has greater global ambition. Google, through deals with music distribution companies, is fundamentally altering how consumers acquire music and who profits. With the music industry turned on its head by file-sharing, agencies will grasp at a commercially-viable digital distribution solution. They will have their tail between their legs however as Google's strangle hold, though keeping them on life support, will pale in comparison to the days of golden disks.

As Fintan O'Toole argues in Google's case of right to book publication, I caution that end-users, we the customer, stand to suffer through these apparent short-term cost benefits (free music and literature). Google intends to shrink content producers (music artists and authors) and distributors profit-pool, and transplant it to its own coffers. If the product is now free, it falls to advertisers to make up the difference. My bugbear is that there is no parallel in value between a book or a record, and whatever it is we are being spoon-fed in the ads column. Much like the property boom, sentiment enabled estate agents to sell sand castles, but as the tide turned, the grainy foundations could not support the house of cards. Consumerism drives advertising, but should economic slowdown reflect online*, which it ultimately must, a similar fate to that of the banks awaits Google; toxic debt.

If consumers turn bearish, legally smash-and-grab proprietary content belonging to Google (it is open-source after all) while ignoring the flashing lights of spam all around, advertising revenue could quickly deteriorate. Market contraction obliges scrupulous valuation. Like land to the banks, Google's greed for content inadvertently devalues the underlying asset, the book or the song, through accessibility. As banks relied on financial packages and debt consolidation offers to fuel land prices, so Google props up the investment in literature and music with affiliate ad partners. Dilute the core product however and third-party market proposition (services/products advertised) diminishes, thus spam.

Google, once the cream of the crop, is on a slow-burn of pasteurisation and skimming to a watery grave. Worse still for all involved, the future for literature and sound looks homogeneously bleak.
[In a related media update (25.07.2009) to this article, read how publishers/authors are groggily waking up to their unsavoury circumstance]

*e-retail is bucking the economic trend with online commercial trade, such as asos, and tech stocks (Nasdaq) outperforming market averages and world indices.

Refine your company's social presence

Interesting sociological findings in The Economist this week, derived from Facebook networks. The message to those in search engine optimisation - Cherry-pick the platforms upon which to integrate and cherish interaction thereon. Less is more!