It's no secret that Google has been a perennial winner in the search engine wars; Google is the No.1 search engine in terms of volume owning more than 65 percent of all searches. While Google remains far and away the leader for search engine traffic, Microsoft's entry, Bing, may change the highly competitive game of search engine marketing.
According to reports from Nielsen Research, Bing's market share rose to 22.1% from 10.7% of all searches in August. These numbers represent search engine traffic from all of Microsoft's search engine properties, MSN, Live and Bing combined.
Other search engines also reported gains in August: Google (2.6%), AOL (1.8%) and ASK (2.9%). - Yahoo!, however, is experiencing a decline with a 4.2 % percent decline in August.
Read more about Bing.
I have a tendency to love tools. I don't care if they are power tools, iPhone apps or just a good old-fashioned set of wrenches and an old MGB car in need of a little fine-tuning, which is pretty much a constant on old British cars. Life just doesn't get any better.
And, that's why I love my job.
As an interactive marketer and a Web site manager, I can always turn to a bevy of Web- and search engine optimization tools to ease my withdrawal from old cars and the strong smell of gas and oil that I hold so dear.
Whether your need is search engine traffic, Website marketing or Web analytics, there is a tool to help. You just need to know where to look. One of my favorite free tools is
Alexa.
Alexa helps marketers learn all about their websites and about the site of their competitors. Alexa can help you determine the popularity, to find relevant new sites and new keywords. You can also find out about demographics on a particular Web site and general site information such as bounce rates, traffic rates and who owns a URL.
My only word of caution is to take the time to understand all the data tools like Alexa churns out. Analytics can easily be misunderstood, so be a smart interactive marketer and know your tools and, most importantly, be sure you know how to interpret the data.
With all this talk use of of Web tools this week, I am ready for a tool that offers a more tactile experience. I am off get my head under the bonnet of a little British car, and to have my hands covered black with grease and oil. Living the dream!
By now, I am sure all search engine marketers have heard about Google Caffeine. The question that still looms for interactive marketers; however, is how will this latest development effect search engine traffic and PPC marketing.
Obviously, a great search engine is concerned more with giving users the best search results as opposed to driving search engine traffic for search marketers. Could Google be redefining prime time in the infamous search engine war?
"It's the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions," said a recent blog post on Google Webmaster Central. "The new infrastructure sits 'under the hood' of Google's search engine, which means that most users won't notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we're opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback."
It stands to reason that if the search engine experience is enhanced than the end result for marketers could be a new tactics for search engine marketing.
The Web site,
http://www.comparecaffeine.com/, might give some insight. This mini-Web analytics tool shows how Google compares to Google Caffeine for keyword searches. This Web tool could be a good primer for search engine marketers.
Also, be sure to check out the sandbox version of Google Caffeine, especially designed for Webmaster and anyone involved with search engine marketing at
http://www2.sandbox.google.com/.
Marketing is a fascinating business.
Just try to explain what you do to family and friends, and you will hear,
"OK, what exactly is social media?"
"Why would you pay for a click?"
"The only engine I want to search for is the one in my new Mercedes!!!"
So, why is Marketing fascinating, you ask?
There are so many facets of it, that are all intertwined, that must be managed each and every day to be successful. And, Marketing is changing.....at a fast and furious rate.....as our audiences become more and more attune to the tools at hand to gain information.
Let's talk about search engines for a moment.
We're all familiar with key words, but my how the world has changed.
It's not enough to load them into websites and pages any more.
Search engine traffic is rising at a phenominal rate,and we all have to figure out what's next.
A word to the wise.....start looking closely at what you can do with organic search.
See you next time!
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