Warmest Greetings,

:: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 ::

Organic vs paid search study results. Business Users Prefer Organic Search Results to Paid Listings

"When asked about the relevancy of search engine sponsored links and advertisements, business searchers responded that even when clicked on, paid links do not yield the best results. Seventy-eight percent of all respondents feel that they find the information that they are looking for less than 40 percent of the time through sponsored links, and the search engine business searches go to first is Google, which 66 percent of the respondents say they use most. The other top search engines among the business community include Yahoo (15.25 percent) and MSN (7.8 percent)."


I spent yesterday afternoon doing some catchup reading and found two things that really held my interest because they're so informative.

The first is Web Analytics - SEO/SEMs Best Friend. Danny Sullivan responds to RustyBrick's Barry Schwartz discussion on website traffic analysis. Both Barry and Danny cover great ground and I'm happy to have taken to read all of it.

The second bow goes to Andy Beal, whose continuing coverage from the Chicago SEO conference on his blog was extensive. I took time out to relax on my couch with my laptop just to catchup, and most of it was done at Andy's Search Engine Lowdown

I dream of doing this when I'm PMS. SEO Bitch aka Jill Whalen

There's something new from Google, again. Google Print. See also Google Print FAQ

Time magazine on Search Engines (Thanks Peter!)

From iProspect's Fredrick Marckini, Connecting Offline Sales to SEM: A Case Study

"Believe it or not, HomeClick is using only one online marketing tactic: paid search engine marketing (SEM).

Even more interesting is its marketing execs often choose to exceed rational bid prices (that can support their online conversion rates and return on investment, or ROI) for certain keywords. Why? Because they've been able to figure out a way to tie offline sales back to their pay-per-click (PPC) campaign."

Fascinating. Do Search Engines Suppress Controversy?

"Does the Internet provide effective alternatives to TV, radio, and news channels? Are websites cost-effective outlets for expression of diverse opinions and fair dissemination of information? Some researchers (see references) suggest the Web is much less than a distinct alternative to traditional media, and even presents similar barriers and limits. Search engines -- the central force for finding information on the Web -- have inherent biases, as does any technology. Perhaps we can test one distinctive aspect of this question: do search engines suppress controversy?"

Linkfarms. 10 Ways To Increase Your Search Engine Ranking - Part 2

"AltaVista director of Internet search John Glick said links that come from link farms are considered by his company to be spam, and if any site uses such links excessively, it might be dropped altogether from AltaVista's listings."

Other stuff

For use after the holiday spending freak-out. ccfinder.com. Credit card comparisons.

Zeldman muses. Logic bumps on the information superhighway

"Amazon could not do the volume of business it does if it required artists to create each thumbnail by hand and editors to review the work for sanity. But unexamined bulk formatting has its drawbacks, as the unfortunate juxtaposition of header and cover art at left shows."

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 12/16/2003 01:59:23 PM

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