Posted by RobOusbey
This is a graph of organic traffic for a theoretical site – they might be in an industry such as print advertising, construction equipment or VHS rental. The decline in traffic is pronounced and serious.
A critical distinction when looking at a graph like this is whether the site’s performance is increasingly worse than the competitors, or whether the whole industry is in decline. In this post I want to recommend some metrics that can be tracked to benchmark your site against competitors (independent of market behaviour) and to check the health of the industry. I’ll then make suggestions for finding opportunities to slow or reverse the trend of dropping traffic.
I remember in 2nd grade when our teacher was teaching us how to do math I raced ahead and was doing lessons for today, tomorrow, and next week. The teacher rewarded my efforts by yelling at me and ripping up the pages from the book and giving me a 0 on that homework.
In fourth grade we would play around the world with math flash cards where you raced to say the answers, and I would literally go all the way around the classroom without losing. I won so much that the other kids would boo when I won and cheer if I lost. In 5th grade I scored well on some state examination test that they had me take a college level entry exam. I beat most college-bound high school students in math before I entered junior high school.
David Meerman Scott, the author of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, 2nd Edition” will be giving the opening keynote at SES New York 2010.
For decades, marketers have relied on buying expensive advertising and begging the media and analysts for coverage. We interrupted “prospects” with our egotistical “messages,” in the hopes of generating interest from buyers (who usually ignored us anyway).
12 updates to read over a lazy weekend.
This week started off fairly quiet in the search news world, but the last two days have been pounded with stories. Here’s a roundup of news we couldn’t quite get to:
Wired did an expose on Google’s algorithm.
Xerox sued Google and Yahoo over search patents.
YouTube introduced a new playlist interface, enabled an add-to-queue feature in search, and integrated video comments with text comments.
Facebook patented their News Feed.
Google Ad Planner is now DoubleClick Ad Planner in the wake of the announcement of DoubleClick for Publishers.
Smells like Microsoft spirit.
Google, being the gigantic company that it is, has become the target of legal action and regulatory concern. Just this week, we learned that Italy found Google execs guilty in the case of a controversial video. There’s the Google Books lawsuit and in the past Google faced scrutiny for an ad deal with Yahoo! (which they pre-emptively canceled) and its relations with Apple (Eric Schmidt later quit the board).
Tell us your favorite search engine for Olympic information.
Recently we took screenshots and compared search results on Oscar nominations and the Super Bowl. This time, we’re fueling the flame of the search wars by looking at results for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Last night’s ladies figure skating was epic, so that’s the term used for this competition. Take a look at the screenshots (click to enlarge for better view) and then leave your score for artistic and technical impressions in the comments below:
Move is latest in location-based features for the search giant.
Google has been on a “Nearby” kick lately. In January, they added “Near Me Now” suggestions to the mobile homepage. Earlier this month, they added “Nearby” suggestions to search results within Google Maps. Now, the main Google search results are getting the “Nearby” treatment.
This time, “Nearby” has been included in the “Search Options” panel. You’ll find it under the third options set, under the link for “Social.”
Click on “Nearby” and Google will automatically bring up results based on your default location. You can also customize your location in the Search Options panel:
After severing ties with Microsoft on the ad front, the new in-house system appears to be paying off.
Last year, Digg decided to go in-house with its ads and began rolling out its new ad platform last summer. This week, Bob Buch took to the Digg blog to give an update on how things were going with DiggAds.
Buch said that revenues are great and that advertisers are pleased with the results. For example, Paramount saw great results promoting the low-budget scare flick Paranormal Activity using DiggAds.
Analytics solution now gives even broader view of total online marketing strategy by including major social network.
Social media measurement is one of the holy grails of web analytics. Webtrends is donning its Indiana Jones hat by integrating a new Facebook measurement feature into their analytics solution. Here’s what it measures:
- Custom applications, Facebook page tabs, and Facebook ad click performance
- Facebook Fan page activity overlaid with corporate blog posts
- Twitter activity driving to Facebook Fan pages
- Conversion performance if it happens in Facebook
Posted by great scott!
This week, we’ve got a couple of newcomers to Whiteboard Studios! Our very own Jen Lopez and Danny Dover (whom you should know well thanks to Jen’s Meet the Mozzers post) are pinch-hitting for our globe-trotting CEO. Let’s all give them a big welcome.
We did a PRO Site Review Webinar last week and noticed a few SEO issues that are all-too-common. So, in this week’s Whiteboard Friday, Jen and Danny will walk you through five common areas where people often make mistakes, and explain quick fixes that can help you improve, including bot blocking, courting the Linkerati, identifying problems using Top Pages, analyzing conversion rate, and addressing canonicalization.
