Difference Between SEM and SEO

Difference Between SEM and SEO
I was wondering what the differences are between SEM and SEO.

Retail Boosts Search Spend in Efficient Frontier’s Q4 2009 Report

Retail Boosts Search Spend in Efficient Frontier’s Q4 2009 Report

Tomorrow, Efficient Frontier releases their quarterly search report and we’ve got a sneak peek at the numbers.

Let’s dive in:

Search Spend

Google’s share rose to 74.5%, up from 73.9% in Q3 2009. Yahoo! lost 0.5% share, while Bing lost 0.2%.

Broken down by sector:

• Retail: Up 17% YOY
• Travel: Down 20% YOY, driven by weak CPC
• Finance: Up 2% YOY
• Auto: Up 2% YOY

Google dominates Retail with 82.7% spend, but is not as powerful in Finance, with *just* 60.1% spend. Yahoo! is stronger in Finance at 35.2%. Bing’s strengths are Travel and Autos at 6.8% and 6.5% share respectively. In fact, Bing’s growth in the Travel sector was a whopping 80% over last year.

Clicks

Overall, the click-through-rate (CTR) was down 40% since Q4 2008. This is likely due to comparison shopping features being added to most of the search engines.

With the decline of the CTR, share becomes even more important.

• Google’s share rose to 74.4%, reversing a downward trend since Bing’s launch.
• Yahoo! lost 3.4% share since Q3, coming in at 21%.
• Bing held steady, declining just 0.1% to 4.6% share.

However, click volume was a different story. Google’s click volume grew by 38% and Bing grew by 7%. Yahoo!’s click volume dropped.

Impressions

Impressions for retail queries increased by a whopping 90% over Q4 2008. Remember, more info is being included in the search results, so that explains the dichotomy between impressions and CTR.

Sales

Average transaction size was down 5% over last year, but up 5% over the last quarter. Ratio of orders per impression was down 30%, but keep in mind those in-SERP shopping features.

Projections

After analyzing the data, Efficient Frontiers offered the following predictions for the new year:

• SEM spend will grow 15-20% in 2010.
• Market competition should recover, spurring volume expansion with CPC.
• Ad exchange development will continue to align with search
• Bing is expected to grow 30% in 2010, giving them a 6-7% share of paid clicks.

Get your toughest questions about paid search answered for free

Get your toughest questions about paid search answered for free

Do you have a really hard question about paid search marketing, but can’t find the answer?

Well, Marin Software along with Search Engine Watch and ClickZ has just launched “Ask the PPC Experts.” (No, I didn’t write the press release that went out this morning. But, thanks for asking.)

This free online forum allows marketers to get immediate answers to even the toughest paid search questions directly from leading industry experts. But wait! There’s more!

Every day from now until July 5, 2010, you are invited to submit a question about paid search on www.paidsearchexperts.com. A team of industry experts from Marin Software, ClickZ, and Search Engine Watch will review the questions and pick one to be answered each day.

Marketers are encouraged to ask the experts their most challenging questions; no query is too complex. The person who provides the best question (most challenging, most relevant, and most unique) by March 5, 2010 will receive a free conference pass to Search Engine Strategies New York, to be held March 22-26, 2010.

“Paid search is one of the most challenging and technically demanding forms of marketing - but, if done right, it’s also one of the most effective at driving sales,” Chris Lien, CEO of Marin Software, said in a press release. “We launched ‘Ask the PPC Experts’ to give search marketers an open forum where they could receive real-world answers to their toughest questions from some of the most experienced minds in search marketing,” he added.

Get it? Got it? Good.

A Look Ahead at SES Conference & Expo Series in 2010

A Look Ahead at SES Conference & Expo Series in 2010

I know, I know. I’m getting ready to call it a year.

But this is also the time to look ahead at the upcoming Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo series in 2010.

It kicks off with SES London, which runs from Feb. 16-19, 2010. The keynote speakers are Avinash Kaushik, Bryan Eisenberg, and Jim Sterne.

Then, there’s SES San Diego, which will be held Feb. 25, 2010, in collaboration with the Online Marketing Summit.

Next, there’s SES New York, which will be held March 22-26, 2010. The keynote speakers include David Meerman Scott and Avinash Kaushik.

There’s a lot more — but check out the interview below with Matt McGowan, Vice President and Publisher for Incisive Media’s Interactive Marketing Group, which includes Search Engine Watch, ClickZ as well as Search Engine Strategies.

Search Engine Strategies (SES) 2010 calendar of events with Matthew McGowan, Incisive Media

Related articles by Zemanta

• Search Engine Strategies (SES) London (businessmedia.co.uk)
• Mike Grehan Named VP and Global Content Director for Search Engine Watch, ClickZ and Search Engine Strategies (prweb.com)
• Search Engine Strategies (SES) Offers SEM Training on November 5, 2009 and SES New York on March 23-25, 2010 (prweb.com)

Top Stories at SES Chicago 2009 on Day 3

Top Stories at SES Chicago 2009 on Day 3

If you don’t count the weather, the top story on Day 3 of SES Chicago 2009 was the morning keynote by Dan Siroker, the co-founder of Spreadly, who led the web analytics team for the Barack Obama presidential campaign and served as a senior member of the larger new media team. Prior to that, Siroker was a product manager for Google Chrome and Google AdWords.

For a summary, read “Using Social Media For Political Campaigns” by Mike Sachoff and Abby Johnson of WebProNews.

Or, read “Keynote: Dan Siroker Obama Transition Team & CarrotSticks from SES Chicago ‘09” by by Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable.

Follow his keynote, I interviewed Siroker about the Obama presidential campaign and social affiliate marketing, a new concept that enables businesses to leverage social media marketing and affiliate marketing to give people incentives to talk about your product.

Social affiliate marketing and analytics by Dan Siroker, co-founder, Spreadly, at SES Chicago 2009

In addition to the morning keynote, several of the conference sessions generated more top stories for SES Chicago 2009. These include “The New MultiMedia Search Age Has Arrived - SES Chicago” byNoah Weiner of ReelSEO Online Video News.

Another top story was “Linguist? Here’s Why the Semantic Web Confuses You - from SES Chicago” by Andy Atkins-Krüger of the Multilingual Search blog.

Another top story was “SES Chicago: Internet Marketing Tips for 2010” posted by Lee Odden of TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog.

If you want to hear Tuesday’s morning keynote by Peter Morville, you can download the podcast at WebmasterRadio.fm.

And in the “you had to be there” category, check out the YouTube video below. Yes, that’s me asking speakers at SES Chicago 2009 if they’ve been “naughty or nice” this year — and what they expect Google to bring them for Christmas.

But this was really the brainchild of Jonathan Allen, the New Director of Search Engine Watch. And I didn’t make any of the editing decisions. So, don’t hurt me for any of the clips that you thought should have remained on the cutting room floor.

So, pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

These are not the droids you are looking for.

Nothing to see here, move along…

But I didn’t disclose the names of any of the interviewees. So, at least none of your clients, employers, family or friends can find this in a search for your name.

Consider that my little gift to you for the holidays.

Searching for Santa at SES Chicago 2009

FacteryLabs Launch FactRank Engine

FacteryLabs Launch FactRank Engine

The search industry has seen a lot of new engines developed moving towards a diversity of specific needs. Recently, “real time” search has been a hot topic with the use of social media in search.

This week a new engine was launched by FacteryLabs - an search technology company founded by Paul Pedersen and Sean Gaddis who have worked at Google, Powerset, eBay, and Skype.

The company has developed a FactFinder API that can be used to combine data from Twitter and Yahoo BOSS. The results I found for various searches may need some fine tuning but the product offers some interesting insights.

Doing a search from their onsite engine gives facts garnered from Twitter conversations and Yahoo search. Essentially you get current discussions and ranked facts about the search topic.

The results are geared towards adoption by mobile search where large amounts of information are generally not being searched for. As Cnet summarizes:

“In a nutshell it goes like this: FactRank goes through each Web page or source (in whatever index it’s searching from) finding semantic tip-offs like declarative sentences. It then cross references each of those against one another, surfacing some of the most relevant ones to the top, as well as factoring in the order of how they appeared. What the user then gets is a tidy list of statements, each of which is sourced and given a level of relevancy based on their appearances in all of the indexed source pages combined.”

The company offers developers the ability to tailor results, so iterations should be populating the web soon. As the site states, “FactEngine will cut through the noise, spam, and porn that convolutes the real-time web to bring you the most relevant facts fast.”

Search Engine Strategies Forum at Online Marketing Summit, San Diego.

Search Engine Strategies Forum at Online Marketing Summit, San Diego.

I was at PubCon last week in Las Vegas. It was a tremendous show with an excellent turnout. I had quite a few conversations about Search Engine Watch, ClickZ and Search Engine Strategies for 2010 and had a lot of great feedback from PubCon attendees. But it seemed that quite a few people hadn’t noticed one of the new events in the SES calendar for February of next year.

With our partners at Online Marketing Summit we’ll be bringing a full day, two track forum event featuring some of the industry’s leading search marketing experts.

I’ll be kicking off the day with an all star lineup to discuss “SEM, Then and Now. What’s new? What’s the same.” As the description lays out, if you stumbled into a time machine in 1999 and out in 2009 you’d be startled by an array of unfamiliar challenges. Meta tags, reciprocal linking and dynamic URL issues are nowhere near as critical as they used to be all those years ago.

So with a group of industry insiders, I’ll be getting them to give us veteran opinions on what has changed what the new challenges are and how we tackle them. It’s a great way to gear up to search marketing for the new year.

You’ll hear from industry big-brains covering everything from the basics through to more advanced topics. And it’s not just search at OMS, it’s the total online thing. Social media, analytics, demand generation, email and integrated marketing are all covered by experts.

So, come join us for some search marketing in the sun (just take a peek at how fabulous this venue is!).

Register here for Online Marketing Summit, San Diego, Feb 22nd - 25th.

Search Engine Optimization Techniques

Search Engine Optimization Techniques
With the search engine marketing (SEM) industry at its peak, various search engine optimization techniques and software have been developed. Among other search engine optimization techniques, …

SEO | Search Optimization | SEO Services | Search Engine Optimization

SEO | Search Optimization | SEO Services | Search Engine Optimization
Professional SEO services, search optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) firm for Fortune 100 clients.

Humorous Copywriting: Adding Humor in Web Content

Humorous Copywriting: Adding Humor in Web Content
Humor has a universal appeal. People want to be happy. Many advertisement companies that show products on television commercials about the products add humor to it. The reason is to, make people laugh…

Next Page »