Ben and Karl from conversion rate experts have published a new site that compares the leading multivariate testing solutions out there today. It’s really informative & quite cool.

Their new site offers the following:

• see the differences between 15 different multivariate testing software solutions (including Google Website Optimizer).
• read reviews from existing users (happy ones and unhappy ones), so you can see the truth behind the sales pitches.
• get a better understanding of what you’re missing out on.

Check it out at Whichmvt.com

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According to a June 2009 Forbes survey, 92% of senior marketing executives plan to maintain or increase their search engine optimization (SEO) budgets over the next 6 months. As companies continue to invest more in SEO, they are seeking better ways to quantify and improve their return on investment (ROI). This is where advanced SEO measurement, optimization & conversion testing comes into play.

2009 Forbes Ad Effectiveness Survey highlights:

Above highlights aken from the official survey. Download the complete Forbes Ad Effectiveness survey here.

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Congratulations Hamlet.

Check out Hamlet’s RankSense SEO Software. It will save you hours of research time, and allowing you to do more off-page optimization.

My friend Hamlet Batista receives his confirmation that his ‘White Hat Cloaking’ presentation speech topic has been accepted by the premiere internet (search) marketing conference, Search Marketing Expo, June 3-4 2008.

He’s going to blow people’s minds. I guarantee it, he’s one of the best, and a truly good person to boot. A quick glimpse at Hamlet’s background. Dominican Republic Computer Science student turned successful affiliate marketer & business owner, turned software developer, entrepreneur to SEO visionary … all with no outside investment capitol.

Hamlet receives the email confirmation that he’s been accepted to speak at SMX.

Me with Hamlet and the RankSense Team while touring their offices in the Dominican Republic. Thanks for your time & product demonstration guys. Keep up the good work.

RankSense is Hamelt’s SEO software division. It could be called a revolutionary product in its class. The Ranksense team has taken a new approach to SEO software automation. More to come on this in a future post.

What do you think about a conference session on White Hat Cloaking? How will SEO automation affect the industry?

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I recently had an opportunity to sit down and ask Aaron Wall some questions. Aaron is a search engine marketer, best know for his ebook on search engine optimization, appropriately titled SEObook. His book was first publish in 2003, and has been revised about 50 times. He can be seen and heard at search industry conferences around globe, and is considered one of the leading experts on understanding how to rank websites to the top of Google, Yahoo & MSN.

I spend a lot of time educating people about SEO, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to ask Aaron simple, more broad questions about how SEO can benefit Mom & Pop shops, small to medium size businesses.
Thanks for your time Aaron.

How has SEO changed in the last 3 years? And how does this affect the impact on businesses who choose to implement it as a part of their overall marketing efforts?

I think the web has got a lot more people engaging in conversation. And I think many of the easy and cheap link sources have died off and/or been filtered out by Google. If you want to compete in the most competitive markets you need to be engaged in the conversation of the marketplace.

How do you recommend a small business, which has had a website up for 3 years, but has never updated it, or monitored it, approach search engine optimization?

Do keyword research and consider setting up some test PPC campaigns to find out what keywords are valuable to your business. Install analytics and do a link audit using Yahoo! Site Explorer. From there read up on link building and start building links if they are behind the curve in that department (there is a good chance they are if they never update their site). And also look at what people in your marketplace are talking about…then review your site to ask what you could add to it to make people want to talk about your site or brand. For on site optimization evaluate your internal use of anchor text and page titles to make sure they are descriptive. Verify your pages have some unique content on them as well (especially true if you are a retailer that does not have editorial reviews on your site).

How do you motivate new business to want to get involved with an SEO professional?

I think you can’t just pick one and make them motivated…or I think it is painful and typically presents a low ROI opportunity. A better solution is to try to appeal to a vertical (be it location or industry). Give value away to some of them and hope that some of the better ones actually worth working with decide to work with you.

What do you feel is the best services SEOs can offer businesses? Link building, social media, site audit, competitive analysis etc.

I honestly think it depends on the business and what they are lacking. Everything should start with a site audit and competitive analysis though. From there you can add whatever is needed to the mix. I think link building is also something that should be trained. External consultants can influence it to some degree, but it is beneficial if company insiders work on it as well.

What are 5 key benefits businesses experience right away after hiring a knowledgeable and experienced SEO to overhaul their site? & How can businesses take advantage of these benefits to give them a competitive advantage in their marketplace?

They learn how to
- track success (analytics, rankings, etc.)
- trim the fat (duplicate content, poorly targeted PPC ads, etc.)
- get the most out of their page titles
- improve their site structures
- lower their risk profile while maximizing potential gains for the risk level they find comfortable
- build links more aggressively (and typically with lower risk)

What are some pros and cons to SEO for small business?

Pros: great targeting and ROI, sustainable competitive advantage if well thought through, limited waste

Cons: some business owners are lazy and/or cheap and do virtually no research and thus they get ripped off, some products and services require more than rankings to sell well sustainably…SEO is only one piece of an effective marketing strategy

How can businesses make an educated decision about what to spend on SEO? What is an average hourly price to pay?

I did SEO for a one time $100 fee a few years back, and the guy made thousands back the next month. Honestly it would be much harder to do that in the current marketplace though. I also charge $500/hr or more for current projects. The wages can be anywhere from like $20 an hour (content writing) to $1,000 an hour (web strategy consulting).

The best way to make an educated decision is to spend a bit of money on learning before hiring a consultant. There are a number of reputable search engine marketing conferences they may want to attend. And a good number of companies, like mine, sell online training ( http://training.seobook.com/ ) as well.

What is your favorite SEO salad? Most understand that fresh content is great (get a blog) and inbound linking from pertinent sites with specific anchor text, PPC, social media, press releases on-page elements etc. Where do you recommend people start? Spinach, Arugala, Iceberg? Do you like croutons?

Of the options I only eat croutons. No salads.

This question is a bit similar to one of the above ones…I would start with keyword research, analytics, and PPC. From there you work on site structure, content creation, and link building.

My favorite link building tools tend to be ones that are widget based / viral based OR conversational in nature. A read of The Cluetrain Manifesto and The Purple Cow are good starting points. From there subscribe to RSS feeds from top blogs in your industry, participate in communities, and really learn the discussion.

What are some of the best link building techniques today? Does reviewing cached, indexed, modified dates rise among the top?

I think the best link building techniques today are to study the market long and hard and create content that fulfills demand. A lot of the best marketing ideas I think come from combining push marketing, viral marketing, and understanding the psychology of the marketplace.

What are the most overlooked aspects of SEO that businesses should be taking advantage of?

Honestly many people still mess up concepts as simple as page titles and doing a good job with their site structure. Meanwhile another group of people work on their on site SEO hard and never build any links. I would say the most overlooked thing is really thinking of balance…what does your site offer for users and search engines. Why should both of them trust you? What does your site offer that is remarkable?

For more information about about Aaron Wall read his blog at www.SeoBook.com

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45 Billion dollars! Wow, what are people’s reactions? What would the new engine look like? Will it happen. Finally, Google may get a serious run for it’s money.

Read more about it here:

http://searchengineland.com/080201-132458.php

http://www.techmeme.com/080201/p26%23a080201p26

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It’s 7 o’clock and I’m having dinner with my friend Ed on the 27th floor steakhouse of Binion’s Casino on Freemont Street. The prime rib is excellent, and every other person is wearing a cowboy hat or ironed jeans. Through the windows of the restaurant we see the flickering lights of the city below. This is Las Vegas baby, anything can and will happen.

Dinner ends and I catch a cab to SEOmoz’s Werewolf party. It’s the second day of Pubcon and the first social gathering for me. I’m new to the SEO conference circuit but not the industry. This gathering will be a good chance to rub some elbows with some big names in the biz and get the real scoop.

I arrive at the convention center to catch the end of the “Meet the Google Engineers” soiree. The room is filled with people chatting with engineers while viewing big flat screen monitors with the latest Google products on them. I notice that everyone has cool Google drink cups in their hands, a souvenir, so I make my way to the bar.

The cocktails are free, and I see the tip jar with just a couple singles in it. I toss in a five and tell the bartender to keep up the good work. The bartender lifts his head and smiles brightly at me. He proceeds to pour what seems to be half a bottle of Jack Daniels into my cup, and splashes a bit of Coke on the top. Wow, I thought to myself. I was not expecting that. This is turning out to be quite a night. Anything could happen.

I do a lap around the room, exit, and arrive next door at the SEOmoz Werewolf party. The room is filled with big rectangular tables, each with about 12 chairs, and black and white M&Ms scatted about the tabletops. People fill in, are seated and Rand Fishkin begins to tell us how to play the game.

How Werewolf, the SEO game is played
Werewolf is a card game. This is the concept. Each deck of cards has faces of search engine optimization professionals on it. Some are white hats, those that are good and can do no wrong according to the search engines. And a few are labeled as black hats, the term given to someone who regularly bends the rules of the search engines and may receive penalties for their bad intensions.

Once everyone gets a card the game begins. Each player puts their head down (as not to see anyone) and beats their hands on the table. The designated moderator of the game then chimes in. “Black hats, wake up.” If you where given a black hat card you team up with the other black hats and pick a innocent victim to eject from the game. Heads down again.

The moderator then asks for the player with the Danny Sullivan card to awake. This player can absolve anyone that was accused of being black hat. A get out of jail free card, so to speak. Then the player with the Matt Cutts card awakes. Matt Cutts can ask about anyone’s loyalty. He knows who is white hat and who is black hat.Once all is said and done, everyone awakes. Now is the chance for the accused to rebuttal and convince everyone that they should not leave the game. And it goes from there until either the black or white hats are left.

The party begins to get interesting
The game is a hoot. Everyone is getting into it, so much that there is a tournament of champions. I find myself at the champion’s table. By this time my cocktail is long gone, and people are cutting loose. I’m at the who’s who table of SEOs playing a loud obnoxious game of cards and I love it.

To my left is the one and only Matt Cutts of Google, a pretty big elbow to rub in the search space. I plan to play it cool, but before I know it the cards are dealt and I get the Matt Cutts card. That’s funny, I thought to myself, what are the odds?

As the game continues, I am able to ask if anyone at the table is a black or white hat. After all, the holder of the Matt Cutts card has this power. I signal Rand, who is moderating the game, and ask if Matt is a black hat. He replies with a big nod, yes. Oh, the irony is tickling me and I can feel the Google cocktail rumble in my stomach. What kind of sign is this?

All heads come up and a player three chairs down is accused of being a black hat. I’m safe, but not for long. Out of the blue the real Matt Cutts begins telling the table he is Danny Sullivan, and that he should not go out? It starts to get a little blurry here, because I know that Matt Cutts can’t be Danny Sullivan (very white hat) because I was dealt the Matt Cutts card and found out he was really and black hat, and thus was lying.

This is when I learned a big lesson.
Nobody will ever believe Matt Cutts is a black hat. (Game or no game) Or could do any wrong, for that matter. He’s too pure. He does not drink; he is Google’s anti-spam guy, and he like cats. I should have trusted to my intuition, but it was that Google drink bomb that had me blurting out, “He’s a black hat, He can’t be Danny Sullivan, I’m the real Matt Cutts.”

As everyone turned to me with faces of disbelief, I began to wonder if this was all a set up? Did Matt know the bartender that poured me the stiff drink? Do all the Googlers roll together? Did he somehow plan to give me his card? Does he really know all that happens, everywhere, not just with Google?

Needless to say, nobody believed me when I tried to plead that I was the real Matt Cutts. They all just pointed and threw me out of the game, while Matt just sat beside me and smiled.

Was this a set up? Does Matt Cutts really have that much power? Is he some sort of super hero? I guess I’ll never know, but at least I have this story. Cheers Matt, thanks for being a good sport and signing the card for proof. Until we play again, I’ll be sleeping with one eye open.

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Google launches conversion optimizer Now through you Google Adwords account you can use this bid management tool. It allows you to manage your cost-per-acquisition (CPA) another way to bid on CPA with Google is Pay-Per-Action (PPA) beta.

If you want a positeve 101 course on Google’s conversion optimizer this is a great article that speak to the dos and don’ts while doing your conversion experiments.

Andrew Goodman, author of “Winning Results with Google Awords”, recounts his 2-day Google Conversion Optimizer experiment gone bad … “ we had lower conversion volume as well as higher costs per acquisition”

Optimization is a key in any online campaign, here Andrew Goodman looks at the need for a detailed picture of click quality.

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Online Ad Revenues Reach $10 Billion In First Half Of 2007, Search Remains Largest Single Category

Greg Sterling over at Search Engine Land has a good review of the numbers.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) released online advertising figures for the second quarter and the first six months of 2007.

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Two Googlers Decipher Trends on Google Mobile Search by Analyzing Search Logs

Gary Price takes a look at what Google is doing with mobile search.

Gary Price at ResourceShelf points us to an intriguing article appearing in the IEEE Computer Society’s Computer Magazine about mobile search at Google. In the piece, two researchers at Google dissect and mine mobile query logs from WAP-based searches coming through a single (unnamed) U.S. carrier. One million “page view requests” from one month earlier in 2007 were analyzed. In the study, Google looked at queries from traditional cell phones, as well as smartphones.

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