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Edgeworks White Paper: Bidding on Brand Names

Now the dust has settled on Google’s Trademark changes, it’s time to look seriously at how bidding on brands and brand names could help you drive traffic to your website.

So, to fill in the gaps and help you make sense of the outrageous amount of info out there, we’ve put together a comprehensive White Paper on how best to add bidding on brands to your SEO strategy.

The White Paper covers:

• What is – and what isn’t - a brand name
• Why people bid on brand names
• How does bidding work
• Google Trademark Policy Change
• Why should I bid on brand names
• What names and words should I bid on

Plus it’s free – so go and listen to it, watch it or and download the hard copy right now! Yes….NOW!!!

ICANN & The Great Domain Name Gold Rush

Much like the diverse effect the Californian Gold Rush had on the lives of millions of people, yesterday’s announcement by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) could go one of two ways:

·    Change the Internet into a bright shiny new world
or
·    Degenerate into a horrible mess 

But before we step into this, a bit of background. ICANN is the organisation that, essentially, controls what we name our websites. They ‘invented’ domain names – ie ‘.com’ & ‘.info’ & ‘.co.uk’. They also accredit and police the people who sell us our domain names – the registrars or domain name registration companies.

Yesterday, ICANN agreed to relax the rules on what constitutes a bona fide generic top-level domain name (gTLD). Well, in fact, they ripped up the rulebook, and flushed it down the toilet just for good measure. From early next year we will all be able to invent our own domain names and apply to have them registered – so we could have: call.edgeworks; BA could have: areoplanes.fly; Barclays could have: great.bank; Sony could have: psp.games, etc etc.

Sounds good? Yes and no. Yes, it will mean that for a paltry sum not less than £50,000 (& probably more like £150k) you too could buy: www.johnsmith.electricals or www.Ilove.hamsters but it also means that someone else could try to buy the above – even if it’s your product or brand. That’s a concern for corporates with multiple brands or businesses channels. It will get very, very expensive to start buying up the whole set.

But possibly the most worrying part of all this stems from a practice called ‘cybersquatting’ which is buying a high profile domain name and then sitting on it until someone pays you a very large sum of money to release it to them.

While ICANN say this won’t happen - and there are ways of legally disputing the ownership of trademarked words if you can pin down where your squatter actually is in the world. It’s highly likely that cybersquatting will be making a very big come-back. Think about it. The world is full of millions of words in hundreds of different languages and dialects. How can you or I or ICANN decide what words, in what order, might be valuable and to whom? Hence, the Gold Rush phenomenon. Where there’s even a hint of a fortune to be made, there’s no stopping the human race.

Google, Microsoft & Yahoo – The Deal

Now then. This is all starting to sound like the plot of a 1930s Hollywood blockbuster, glorious Technicolour and all. It has that Gone With The Wind feel about it somehow. In a move similar to Rhett Butler’s 'Frankly My Dear I Don’t Give a Damn' pronouncement, last night Yahoo announced a joint advertising and online search deal with Google and told everyone that the Microsoft talks were over. Microsoft say they don’t want Yahoo anymore, but aren’t ruling out a fresh attempt to buy some of the company.

Confused? The bald facts are as follows: In a press release yesterday, Yahoo stated that ‘talks with Microsoft have concluded’. Yes. Well, I think that’s because Microsoft drew a line in the sand at 47.5 billion dollars. But, hey, what’s a couple of weeks and good PR! Now it’s Yahoo who has ‘concluded’ talks. But, if you can believe it, Microsoft have said today that they will be open to an ‘alternative transaction’. Meanwhile in a separate press release yesterday Yahoo announced they’d signed an agreement with Google which allows the following:

‘[It] enables Yahoo! to run ads supplied by Google alongside Yahoo!'s search results and on some of its web properties in the United States and Canada. The agreement is non-exclusive, giving Yahoo! the ability to display paid search results from Google, other third parties, and Yahoo!'s own Panama marketplace. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Yahoo! will select the search term queries for which - and the pages on which - Yahoo! may offer Google paid search results. Yahoo! will define its users' experience and will determine the number and placement of the results provided by Google and the mix of paid results provided by Panama, Google or other providers. The agreement applies to paid search and content match and does not apply to algorithmic search. The agreement also applies to current partners in Yahoo's publisher network.’

While I’m not sure Microsoft will look painfully out at the ravaged techno landscape, pull their shoulders back, run a hand across their brow and say: Tomorrow’s Another Day, I do think they’ll be back for another stab at buying part or all of Yahoo. Lets face it, the bigger and more successful Yahoo becomes the better for the eventual purchaser…And you can read anything into that you want! 

Microsoft drops bid for Yahoo! (!)

Industry analysts and watchers have been in a frenzy for months over Microsoft’s much publicised take-over bid for Yahoo! As with all global mega-deals of this sort there was much talk, much posturing, much backstabbing and lots of ego stroking. When you’re both lumbered with a zillion shareholders any potential deal is fraught with problems – sort of like two politicians in a synchronised swimming contest. They need to execute the moves to a high standard, wow the crowds, act tough, look fit, kiss babies and avoid sinking even further at the same time.

So – it shouldn’t really come as a big shock that Microsoft got out of the pool, readjusted it’s trunks and left the building. Because if you can’t win then at least pull in your stomach, straighten your back and exit gracefully with your 47.5 billion dollars still in your pocket. "I am disappointed that Yahoo has not moved towards accepting our offer," says Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer. Yahoo co founder and chief executive Jerry Yang says: “We did not say it was a take-it-or-leave-it number in the sense that we would never negotiate any more. We were totally willing to do a transaction, and they walked away.” Ummmm. Just goes to show you that reality depends on where you’re standing.

It would have been the largest transaction of its type in history and, despite reports, insiders still think it could be. Is the walk-out part of the game? Who knows? What is for sure is that Yahoo still have their sights on doing a partnership deal with Google. And Microsoft still need to make up ground against Google. So until Google stops being the dominant force in the market place – don’t hold your breath – then both Microsoft and Yahoo could be heading down this road again quite soon.

Google TV ads service

No. Google has not set up its own TV station. Though I wouldn’t rule it out (ummm…wonder what odds I could get at Paddy Power….). No, this is another in the huge and ever escalating list of new services introduced by Google that help you (or in this case Americans) get their ads onto the TV.

My first thought was – why on earth should I want Google’s help with that? Surely I’d do the sensible thing and employ an agency to create and place my ad. Ah, yes. But this is America. Well, it isn’t but you know what I mean! In America you get more TV commercials per square inch than you do actual TV programmes. Anyone who has ever visited America and inadvertently turned on the telly will know that after about 20 minutes you begin to reassess your relationship with the BBC and start to consider hermit status as a valid and reasonable lifestyle choice. 

But – back to the job in hand. Google TV ad service. Basically, you have an ad made by an agency and then via the Google service, which looks and operates very much like AdWords, you choose a time slot on a national TV network, pick a programme, choose your budget and off you go. As with all Google services, it does satisfy a real need. It’s simple to use, cost effective and will put a few ad agency noses out of joint. But most importantly it gives you total control and you can instantly target your audience or demographic – say, men over 65 – by using Google’s target audience suggestions tool. So you can be sure you’re getting to the people you really need to watch your ad.

Watch out for its arrival in the UK. We predict interesting times ahead!!    

The Alexa Myth

No this is not a Greek legend full of women with wings dive-bombing heroes in small boats or blokes waking up one day to discover they’ve married their mother by accident, this is about a website that measures traffic volumes to other websites. The myth part is the same though.    

While Greek Myths are stories handed down over generations and then written down by some enterprising chap to make some cash, the Alexa Myth is a story handed down since 1996 and written down by some enterprising etc etc etc….

Much the same as the Greek Myth, the Alexa Myth did not set out to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes – no one really believes that a bloke made a pair of wings in his garden shed, strapped them on, flew up two million feet and discovered a design fault, do they? Hence, no one really believes that your Alexa ranking, calculated by counting the sites visited only by those people who have an Alexa Tool Bar (a wot?!), is a sound way to evaluate how your website is performing, do they?

The trouble is that yes, they do believe it. It’s like believing that there really is a woman with snakes for hair, a three headed dog or a man with a trident who lives at the bottom of the sea. It’s not likely is it? Not something you’d put a bet on. But myths are powerful things when perpetrated by people who should know better. So, our advice is if an ‘expert’ tells you you’re ace because you’ve got a great Alexa ranking just tell them you know your Greek Myths and Alexa is one of them!

Why Google when you can Scoogle?

Thanks to an interesting post on the More Visibility blog, this week I discovered that not only can you Google but you can also, if you so desire, Scroogle!

OK. So what is Scroogle? It's a private search engine which, unlike the vast majority of mainstream engines, does not keep a record of who you are and what you've been looking at...(let's just rewind that slowly shall we)...keep-data-on-what- you've-been- looking-at- together- with-data-on-who -you-are...! Feeling a little uneasy? I know I was and I'm a good boy. Yes. Search engines do keep your personal info etc for up to 18 months and they can be requested by a court to release it...

Scoogle however does not give you that sweaty, palpitating feeling that you might have done something wrong when you haven't (Think: the first time a policeman asked you your name when you were six) because it's completely private and within an hour of using the site, the search terms are gone forever. Phew!

Is there a lesson to be learned from Scroogle's success? Yes - privacy is important to real people. So when you're undertaking any search engine marketing make sure that you adhere to the Data Protection Act, but also that you demonstrate clearly on your website what's private and what isn't - ie get yourself a privacy policy page - and make sure it's not just words.

As an aside – a rather topical one – Daniel Brandt, founder of Scroogle is also behind Wikipedia Watch a site dedicated to...well...watching Wikipedia...very closely indeed...

Video Ads come to Google Search Results

Now then. You know Web 2.0? The Universal Search? Well it’s starting to get serious. Web 2 likes interactivity, so no one was particularly shocked when Google launched its advertising programme in the US called AdSense for Video – ad videos confined to websites themselves - back in October last year.

And no one should be surprised that the New York Times now tells us Google has rolled this out into the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) either! So what’s the story? The real story is that this is an excellent example of how fast technology is moving right now - plus the integration of streaming video will, eventually, have a big impact on what your customers actually see on the SERP.

Basically instead of what they see now: a list of websites, a few images at the top maybe and text ads at the right hand side, they will see your competition’s pay-per-click moving video images. Not yet, not now – at the moment, in the US, they will see a plus sign to click to see the video but in time there will be streaming images on the results page. A whole new world of search engine marketing - yippee I hear you cry!

There are no examples of what these search result videos will look like yet, but for some very cute examples of Google’s AdSense videos with horribly addictive music see:  Cute Video!

So what should you do? First talk to us at Edgeworks and we can help you start planning how to make the most of the future….

For more information on Web 2.0 & Universal Search - the start of the future of Google - click here to request our White Paper.

The Google Blacklist Nightmare!

Everyone’s worst nightmare came to call on GoCompare.com recently when they suddenly sank without trace after breaking Google’s infamous, largely secret and ever-changing ‘rules’. Robin Goad, research director at Hitwise gives us some nice graphics which make the blood run cold! Kind of like watching a disaster movie from the 1970s – all’s well, people are laughing and happy and then someone sees smoke coming out of the air vent on the 250th floor….

What happened was that GoCompare was riding high on the search term ‘car insurance’ until one fine day on or around 26 January when it plummeted faster than the stock exchange on Black Monday. The reason for GoCompare’s ‘delisting’ is a matter of debate across the net. No one can be absolutely sure why and it’s probably not fair to speculate – though I’m pretty sure I know why – but suffice to say it’s a salutary lesson for everyone to listen to their SEO people, keep up to date and don’t try to do anything you think is clever! Because it probably won’t be!

Search Engine Marketing: Happy Birthday!

Search engine marketing has got to that awkward age. It’s 11 this year and being 11 means it’s no longer the little kid squeaking from the back, desperate to be noticed; it’s stopped putting its hand up for every question and is pretty cool about its place in the pack. It’s nearly grown up – it thinks.

In terms of what this loss of innocence means for the rest of us is succinctly put in Matt Greitzer & Co’s Search Insider blog. In his article Search Marketing Strategies For The Next Decade, Matt gently reminds us that the world does not begin and end with landing pages (nice though they are!). In future you need to take it one step further and create a search-focused content strategy – ie. analysing user intent and adjusting the website, its words, taxonomy, structure and navigation to reflect what users expect to see when they get there. This is the future direction of search engine marketing and, as ever, the big boys (aka your competition) are working on it right now – so get with the programme!

For more info see Matt’s blog – you need to register to see all the posts – and you can always talk to us at Edgeworks (I would say that wouldn’t I!).