Anyone can see the road that they walk on
Is paved in gold
And it's always summer
They'll never get cold
They'll never get hungry
They'll never get old and grey
-- The Way by Fastball

The Way seemed to be playing everywhere in the Summer of 1998. Then and now the song seems like an allegory for the dreams that search engines sent soaring high.

That Summer E-Power Marketing started offering search engine marketing. The nine years since leave me older, and I have a few grey hairs. The rewards of figuring out the search engines and making them work for E-Power's clients give me satisfaction beyond the monetary. And the challenges never stop.

While working for a Web developer, I saw that marketing the Website was - and is - the challenge that fulfills the promise. So I made up my mind and started packing to launch E-Power Marketing on July 2, 1998.

Organic search engine optimization was quite different nine years ago. That was before Google.

Yahoo ruled. Establishing a keyword-filled description in Yahoo Directory was a giant step toward driving search engine traffic. E-Power Marketing successfully listed our clients with keyword-rich directory descriptions, while many others were failing. They failed because they used automated software to submit to Yahoo directory. This often resulted in a Yahoo Directory listing that had a blank description. The keywords in the description generated Yahoo search positions. Other Webmasters submitted too frequently, causing Yahoo editors to ignore the too-frequent requests.

To make AltaVista rock, write 100 words using the target phrase 4 or 5 times, then repeat the target phrase in meta keywords up to 1,024 total characters, but not over. Voila! You are on the 1st page!

Infoseek was the best place to test search optimization. In two weeks if Infoseek did not reward your site with top search positions, then you knew you had to go back and try again.

Voyeur was a Website that allowed you to watch real searches on Magellan, one of the first Web search engines. I learned people searched a lot of dirty words.

Techies loved HotBot because Wired Magazine started the search engine.

Excite would soon sell for something like $7 billion to AT&T while generating about $40 million in revenue, thus setting off the Internet Frenzy.

What a wild ride! I loved it all! Even when the Internet Bubble burst, though that created challenges.

Today E-Power Marketing is stronger than ever, which is more than we can say about many of the big players of 1998.

Yahoo is still a Player. But it is a weak #2 to Google. Yahoo Directory has more influence on Google than on Yahoo search results.

AltaVista missed launching an Initial Public Offering before the Bubble burst. Today it is still a good search engine, but enjoys a fraction of the search market share it once owned.

Infoseek is now Go.com. It has not been its own search engine for years. Today it picks up search results from Yahoo.

Voyeur and Magellan are long gone.

HotBot uses search results from Ask. Hard to say whether many techies use it anymore.

Excite search results are a mix of paid and natural search from different sources. Excite never came close to paying back $7 billion. Today it is owned by IAC Search & Media.

Today Google rewards search positions because of strong, relevant content with links pointing to the pages. The algorithm generates far more relevant search results than the search engines of years past.

Still, it was fun copying and pasting meta keywords for AltaVista to hit the 1,024 characters without going over.

Labels: Organic SEO

Why is Yahoo Search Marketing introducing Quality Based Pricing for their Content Match product? Is Yahoo Search Marketing struggling to get advertisers to use their Content Match product? If so, why? And will this new Quality Based Pricing drive more advertisers to use the Content Match product? Before we delve into those questions, let's do a quick overview of the Quality Based Pricing and Content Match product.

The new Quality Based Pricing is an initiative by Yahoo Search Marketing to draw more advertisers into using their Content Match product. The Content Match product is a distribution network of independent sites that display Yahoo Search Marketing ads for a percentage of the click fee. This is known as Yahoo's Partner Network. The new quality based Content Match pricing is now going to be "based on conversion rates and other measurements of the ability to deliver more interested and valuable customers to you from particular distribution partner sites." Yahoo is saying that they will "help enhance the quality, potentially reduce the cost and increase the value of traffic to you." Is this the answer?

Is Yahoo Search Marketing struggling to get advertisers to use their Content Match product?

Rolling out this new pricing model says to me that, "Yes, Yahoo is struggling to get advertisers to use their Content Match product." But is this new pricing model the answer? No. The real solution to getting you more targeted traffic lies in how Yahoo targets their ads on Partner Network sites. The reason we do not use Content Match with out clients is because Yahoo's technology can not properly place ads alongside relevant content. We don't see the value in having an ad targeting "small blue widgets" showing up alongside content for "large pink gizmos." There is also no value paying a few pennies less for this poorly targeted ad. So no, this new Quality Based Pricing is not the answer we are looking for. Better targeting is, and until Yahoo implements this or allows us more flexibility with their Partner Network, we will not be using the Content Match product.

In a previous blog post I applauded Yahoo when they introduced their Panama Update, which included ranking based on price, and more important, ad quality. Yahoo took another step in the right direction when they allowed for separate Content Match bids which allowed the advertiser to bid less on these Content Match sites. The next steps in improving the Content Match product should be better targeting and allowing the advertiser the opportunity to pick individual sites with the Partner Network to advertise on.

Labels: PPC Advertising