Something New at Yahoo!

By Susanne Svette, IdeaStar Search Engine Specialist

Yahoo! Search Marketing has a new search advertising platform, and a new blog to keep you informed.

The new service is touted as “a completely new, completely redesigned ad platform that provides businesses with an easier way to connect to customers, and will provide more tools and capabilities to advertisers, along with an enhanced, more relevant experience to users.”

Some of the enhancements include:

• Automated keyword bid management - saves time and frustration
• New marketing console - helps track the success of your online marketing campaigns
• Geo-targeting - Allows targeting of customers for specific areas, large or small, helping to control ad costs
• Fast ad activation - Most ads go live in a few minutes
• Redesigned control panel - Easy-to-use features help keep track of campaigns
• Easy ad testing - Allows testing of multiple ads to find out what works best
• Campaign budgeting, forecasting and scheduling - Take control of your online ad budget and advertising campaigns.
  
• Product submission - Easy entry into Yahoo! Shopping
• Travel submit - Easy submission into Yahoo! Travel
  

The new blog is designed to help advertisers get to know and use the new Yahoo! Search marketing system. So if you are looking to learn more about search engine marketing, you may want to visit often or sign-up for an RSS feed.

We all know Google is THE major search engine, but Yahoo! gets a fair share of searches. Google users tend to be much more technical and business oriented. While Yahoo! users tend to be more casual Internet users. However, they still have great buying power and you may want to include them in your search marketing plans - especially now that they have a shiny new search adversing platform.

Copyright © 2006 IdeaStar
All rights reserved.

Wow! SEOBOOK has Great SEO Tools Online

By Susanne Svette, IdeaStar Search Engine Specialist

SEOBook is a blog written by leading search engine optimization consultant Aaron Wall who writes "a new chapter everyday." It's a great resource whether you are just learning about SEO or are an old pro.

One of my favorite sections of the site is the FREE tool page and particulary the SEOBook Keyword Suggestion Tool. Just enter your main keyword or phrase and watch what happens. SEOBook cross references Yahoo! (Overture), Google, WordTracker, Keyword Discovery, regional search volume estimates, and various bid prices. The feature I find most helpful is "Google Synonym" which presents you with, what else, synonyms! This has come in handy many times when I just can't come up with alternatives to some of those more broad keywords and phrases.

I love that I can go to one place to access the information quickly and accurately. Thanks Aaron.

SEOBook is always coming out with new tools to keep up with the trends of the search engines. Enter your e-mail address to be alerted about the latest and greatest. And don't forget to check out SEOBook daily at www.seobook.com.

Copyright © 2006 IdeaStar
All rights reserved.

Big Fish and Search Engines

By Susanne Svette, IdeaStar Search Engine Specialist

As you may know, Google is the Big Momma of search engines. When people are looking for information on the Internet, most turn to Google for the most relevant results. But other search engines do exist.

So if your Web site is not ranking well in Google, perhaps you should try one of the others. After all, some people say it is better to be a big fish in a small pond, than a small fish in a big pond.

The other major search engines are Yahoo, MSN, and Ask. Some of the criteria is the same, but you should still optimize your site according to Google rules, including incoming links, content, metatags and titles.

What's the difference? Yahoo and MSN allow a longer and more specific title tag, and both allow submission. While Google will eventually pick up your site on its own, you can submit your URL to Yahoo for $299 per year, encouraging a quicker listing. MSN listings are free, but if you would like help in posting, they charge a minimal fee.

You may also want to consider your audience when posting your Web site in a search engine. Google draws the most technically literate crowd. Yahoo tends to draw searchers from its e-mail subscribers. And MSN draws a less Internet savvy group who are drawn there mostly for the news. As for Ask, it has been undergoing a lot of changes lately, so I'm not sure what their focus will evolve into.

Still, many people use all four search engines. So build your site for Google, and submit it to the other search engines. Even if Google is getting 60 percent of the searches, that still leaves 40 percent going to the other three.

Copyright © 2006 IdeaStar
All rights reserved.