Posts filed under 'How (Not)-To's'

The Three Biggest Mistakes in Search Marketing

Knowing What Not to Do is Important, Too

Editor’s Note: Here on the Yahoo! Search Marketing blog we usually like to “accentuate the positive,” as Johnny Mercer would say. But in search marketing, knowing what not to do can be just as vital as knowing what to do, especially when you’re just starting out. Veteran search marketer, Mike Moran author of Search Engine Marketing, Inc. and Do It Wrong Quickly: How the Web Changes the Old Marketing Rules, offers us some useful tips on how to avoid some of SM’s biggest pitfalls.

Search marketing is becoming mainstream (as opposed to sidestream, I think), but I still find people drowning in that stream. They forget that search marketing is more about marketing than search, because the search technology piece seems so new and different. Woe to the search marketer who misses the marketing part—they’re likely to make one or more of these mistakes:

1: The Rank Amateur Error
Rookie search marketers often fixate on the rankings of their ads, thinking that getting a #1 position on an important keyword is the road to success. Now understand, being #1 usually beats being on page 17 of search results (unless you are targeting the obsessive-compulsive segment), but the days of even knowing your page’s ranking are coming to an end.

Search engines are personalizing more and more search results, so that different searchers get different results for the same keyword. If you focus only on rankings, soon you’ll wake up to find that only the search engines themselves know your rankings. Rather than slavishly reviewing your rankings, your time is better spent finding another metric that best captures the business value of your marketing efforts.

2: The Traffic Report Error
Well, if it’s not rankings, it must be traffic, right? After all, the purpose of search marketing is to drive traffic to your site. That’s true, of course, but the business value of search marketing stems from buyers, not lookers. For paid search, in fact, having more lookers with few buyers is the worst possible situation to be in, because you pay for every searcher who clicks, but you’re getting next-to-no sales to show for your investment.

Instead of studying traffic reports, focus on conversions—the sales that result from your search campaign, whether online or offline. Very often, search keywords that send heavy traffic to your site convert at low rates, while less popular keywords drive more revenue. Focus on the keywords that drive sales, not just traffic.

3: The 24/7 Sales Pitch Error
Some search marketers who avoid the first two errors still fall for the third, blanketing their web site with sales pitches without the proper background. Of course, it’s natural for you to emphasize information about your products, such as advanced features, special deals and capabilities that differentiate your wares from competitors’.

However, that information targets people who already know they need to buy something—folks who know that your product (or your competitor’s) solves their problem. What about the people who know they have a problem, but have no idea what to do about it? Do you have the kind of problem-solving content that those customers are looking for? If you do, figure that some of those people will appreciate the information and stick around to buy from you.

As you gain experience in search marketing, focusing on content across the entire buying cycle (including problem-oriented content for folks not ready to buy yet) will provide you with the widest net with which to snare searchers and turn them into customers. And you’ll be measuring just how many of them buy, instead of tracking only rankings or traffic. By avoiding these big three mistakes, you’ll be ready to make a few lesser mistakes—or maybe even get it right.

—Mike Moran is an IBM Distinguished Engineer for IBM’s OmniFind search and analytics products

Beware “Phishing” Scams

Fraudsters are Out There, Angling for Your Private Information

We don’t want to cause a panic, but the fact is that bad guys who want your passwords are roaming the Net—and, they’ll grab your credit card and social security numbers, your home address, your date of birth and your mother’s maiden name, too, if they have the opportunity.

These days, “phishing” scams are commonly received in just about everybody’s email. Usually, the phonies look just like the emails from large companies that many of us already do business with, like Amazon, eBay and Yahoo!. They even have official-looking logos and language that sounds like a typical, legitimate email.

Fortunately, there are usually clues in these emails that should raise red flags as you read them.

How to Recognize a Scam Email
Phishing emails usually try to hook you with some official-sounding message about your account. A common subject line is “Please Verify Your…” Once you open the email, you’ll often see familiar corporate colors, branding, logos and language. Sometimes they will tell you that your account has been disabled for a bogus reason. At other times, they’ll offer a “free upgrade” to a new (and often non-existent) service.

Recent Phishing Attempt Aimed at Our Advertisers
Like all large Internet companies, Yahoo! is not immune to having its customers targeted by phishing expeditions. First, take a look at this email, which we sent this past Spring to our Local Sponsored Search advertisers, advising them of the upgrade of their accounts to the new “Panama” system:

With a few changes, a scam artist then turned the above into the email below and randomly sent it out to thousands of recipients:

Don’t Give Out Account or Personal Info to Anyone
The biggest clue in the fake email is that it asks for your username and password. Yahoo! will never send you an email asking for your password 

Another way to help tell the faux from the friendly is by looking at the sender’s email address. Most of the official communications we send you will come from an address that looks like this: solutions(at)ysm.yahoo-email.com. If you get an email from a yahoo.com address asking you for info, it’s a good bet that it’s a fake.

If you think you’ve been “phished” for info, please let us know by emailing phishing(at)cc.yahoo-inc.com, or forward the email in question to that address.

To learn more about how you can keep from getting reeled in by “phishermen,” and how to guard against other Internet-based scams, visit these resources:

• Common Abuse Issues
• Yahoo! Security Center

—The Team