Survey: Search Pros Managing Massive Budgets Have Little Experience

by Tameka Kee, Thursday, Jan 10, 2008 8:00 AM ET

ABOUT A THIRD OF ALL in-house search pros are managing budgets of more than $200,000 per month--and some 40% of these budget bigwigs have three years of experience or less, according to stats from the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization's (SEMPO) inaugural In-House SEM Salary Survey.
"The $200K monthly spend is a healthy barometer of the search marketing industry and it syncs up with SEMPO's current trend projections that SEM spending will double by 2011, to more than $18 billion," said Duane Forrester, co-chair of SEMPO's In-House SEM Committee and Lead SEO Program Manager with Microsoft. "We anticipated a lower ceiling of monthly spend closer to the $100,000 range, so we were pleasantly surprised."

While the survey results show that marketers are pumping dollars into search, they also highlight the need for search to mature as an industry. Just about a third of respondents managing $200,000+ budgets had between three and five years of experience, and 26% had five years or more.

This lack of relatively tenured in-house search pros is what allows the more experienced practitioners to command six-figure salaries, as 21% of those with between three and five years of experience were bringing in at least $100K annually--and 26% of respondents with five or more years of experience clocked in over $200K per year. In contrast, just 8% of respondents with three years of experience or less were making at least $100K. Roughly half of all of these less-tenured in-house search pros earned between $30K and $50K.

According to Rob Crigler, co-chair of SEMPO's In-House SEM Committee and director of interactive marketing for Orkin, the salary spread is evidence that the search industry already is maturing--as candidates will often have to manage large budgets and deliver results before gaining a title and the salary that comes with it. "You can't just be a hotshot search geek and think you're going to walk in to a six-figure in-house job off the street," Crigler said. "That might have been the case a few years ago, but you have to pay some dues now."

Why YOU Should SEO

Why YOU Should SEO

I speak to prospective clients every week about Search Engine Optimization and many aren’t familiar with the concept. Those that are usually tell me how gung-ho they are about it, but when the time comes to talk about implementation it’s the last thing they want to spend their money on. It always comes down to cost and instant gratification.

SEO takes time to implement and weeks or months before a client usually sees results. On the other hand, a client can spend the same amount of money on paid search and see results immediately. The question then becomes do you want to lease search engine traffic or buy it? When you pay for SEO, you are making a long term investment in keeping your business visible in organic search rankings on Google and Yahoo. Essentially you’ve earned the ranking you’ve worked hard to obtain. When you do straight paid search, you may be at the top of the heap, but that only lasts as long as you choose to pay for keywords. Both techniques are important, but SEO should be the foundation of any sound Internet marketing strategy. Besides building brand awareness and reinforcing the perception that you’re an expert in your field, there is an inherent amount of trust gained when a perspective visitor to your website finds you on the first page of Google vs. being the first banner ad on the page.

So now that I’ve sold you on SEO, you naturally want to know what sort of techniques work to get your site the attention it deserves.

• Make sure your site can be easily “crawled” by Google and Yahoo spiders. Often, we design a website to look appealing to human eyes, but the tools that search engines use to actually learn what your site is about can’t read the content because all your text is buried in graphics.

• Know which keyword terms you should be targeting. Do research on your competition and see what is working for them. Type several search queries into Google and see how your site ranks. If you’re on the first results page, then you’re doing something right. If not, then you have some work to do.

• Update your content regularly. Search engines want their results to be fresh. Just because you published your website to the world doesn’t mean you don’t have to update it for a year. Ideally you should be adding new content every week.

• Become an expert in your field. Google and Yahoo want to highlight the experts in a given industry. By writing articles and blog entries on topics relevant to your business, you establish yourself as a thought leader. That leads to better page ranking.

• Don’t try and “game” the system. Tricks and other “black hat” techniques may work for while, but search engines will catch you if you try and cheat the system. That means no link farms, no keyword stuffing, and no hidden text on your site. The only thing harder to overcome than a low Google ranking is a low Google ranking on a site that’s been penalized for cheating the system.

Hopefully the items above give you a starting point in regard to mounting a successful SEO campaign. If you decide to outsource your SEO (many companies do), make sure you do your research and find a company that won’t do more harm to your business than good. Beware of firms that promise the #1 spot on Google, or guarantee a time frame in which you’ll see results. SEO, when done properly, takes weeks and often months. There are no shortcuts. Set aside a budget, and give your SEO firm six months. You’ll be amazed at the return on your investment.

Scott Parent is the Vice President of Search and Social Media Optimization at MediaTrust. His division specializes in Search Engine Optimization and Marketing, and Social Media Production and Optimization.

Tips for Optimizing Blogs and Feeds

By Ross Dunn - September 6, 2007 I caught an interesting seminar today called "SEO Through Blogs and Feeds" with Stephen Spencer, Rick Klau, Doug Hay and Greg Jarboe on the panel. The following are my point by point notes that stood out as noteworthy. Some of these tips are mirrored in my 3 part tutorial on blogging called Blogs 101 but as always some great new tips popped up.

Key Tips
For those in a rush or who have already read my blogs 101 article the following tips are very worthwhile reading - if just for their importance as reminders:

• It is extremely important that RSS auto-discovery tags be placed in the header of every page within a website that has feeds available. By doing so you will provide users and search engines alike with a simple method of being notified that you have RSS feed(s) and it will allow immediate subscription without fuss. In contrast simply having a RSS logo hyperlinked with a feed provides little or no benefit and does not provide auto-notification that a feed is available.
  
  Furthermore it is recommended to create a unique auto-discovery tag for each available RSS feed and place them all in the header. If you think you have too many then I would recommend choosing the feeds that are most relevant to the page content.
  
  
• A WordPress plugin was noted called the "SEO Title Tag Plugin". This plugin really impressed me because it allows WordPress users to see and individually customize the title tags of every post within the associated blog; without a doubt a powerful capability since title tags play a significant role in rankings.
  
  
• If you use paid Press Release services to disseminate your latest company news then it also works to your advantage to create a separate blog specifically used for your press releases. In this regard you can use the associated RSS feed to get some free publicity by submitting it to blog directories and other blog-syndicating properties.
  
  
• If you are finding it difficult to get the word out about a particular piece of news then Greg Jarboe has a great idea for you: track down the key bloggers that appear to be driving the news in your industry and contact them with your story.
  
  If your story interests even one of the bloggers and gets published then you could get a massive amount of publicity for zero dollars.
  
  During the presentation of this concept Greg Jarboe utilized a powerful online tool called BuzzLogic to identify which people drove the latest news in key topics. Unfortunately BuzzLogic appears to be priced well out of the capabilities of many small businesses (at $12,000/yr minimum) so I will provide a very basic free alternative to determining the leaders of a particular topic.
  
  Step 1) Search in your favorite search engine for the particular topic. Within the results separate the blogs from the other content. If you do not find at least 10 bloggers then try search again with different wording for the same topic.
  
  Step 2) Look at each blog individually and look for indications of readership or popularity. For example perhaps one of the website has a Feedburner subscription counter with the blog's current readership OR take the URL of the blog and conduct a backlink check on Yahoo using "linkdomain:www..com" (without the quotes) to see which blogs have the most inbound links. Sort these blogs according to their popularity.
  
  Step 3) Find contact information on each site and then contact the writer(s) starting with the most trafficked blogs and pitch your news/idea/story.
  
  Note: I am not saying the steps above have anywhere near the quality of results that a full-fledge program like BuzzLogic has but it is certainly a great place to start.
  
  
• Promote your latest blog posting by taking advantage of a popular blogger's vanity. Compliment them within your key article (somehow) using their full name and perhaps provide a link back to their website. Chances are that the blogger often keeps an eye on blog postings or sites that utilize their name. When they visit your posting there is a good chance they will read it.
  

General Blog and Feed Optimization Tips:

1. Providing full text feeds was noted regularly throughout the presentation as a far superior method for creating backlinks and getting found online.
2. Your blog feed should have 20 or more items never the minimum 10.
3. Provide a feed for every category your site/blog offers.
4. Ensure that you create keyword rich blog posts and ensure that your brand is well represented within the text.
5. Ensure the most important keyword/phrase is listed in the blog title.
   
   

Optimize Your Blog's Linking Structure For Best Results

1. Provide a listing of the top 10 posts within your site so the stories do not get buried in archives or category pages. If the articles are performing well it is just logical to keep them in plain view to get more mileage from them.
2. Use Tag Clouds and Tag Pages to increase the possible routes to your valuable past content.
3. If you are using WordPress as your blogging tool it is a great idea to install the "Sticky Posts" plugin which allows you to 'stick' an introduction or key post at the top of each category page.
   
   

Addressing Blog Duplication Concerns
By opening up categories (a.k.a. 'labels' on Blogger) to the search engines you increase the likelihood of having a great deal of duplicated content. Fortunately the search engines have, so far, been quite clear that duplicate content in blogs is not a concern because it is a natural consequence of labeling. That said, there was a WordPress plugin noted that would allow you to create controlled article excerpts (or teasers) within the category pages. It is called "Optional Excerpts" and by using it you can maintain the authority of the core posting since the label pages will only provide a teaser versus the full text of the article.

Discuss this article in the Small Business Ideas forum.

ValueClick to Acquire Leading U.S. Comparison Shopping Site Operator MeziMediaMonday

July 16, 8:30 am ET
Fourth-Largest U.S. Comparison Shopping Company Will Also Provide Search Expertise and Presence in China

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ValueClick, Inc. (Nasdaq:VCLK - News) today announced that it has agreed to acquire privately-held MeziMedia, Inc., a leading operator of U.S. comparison shopping websites. MeziMedia ranked fourth in the June 2007 comScore "Retail - Comparison Shopping" category with approximately 10.5 million U.S. unique visitors through its Smarter.com comparison shopping and CouponMountain.com online coupon websites.
ValueClick anticipates three key strategic benefits from the MeziMedia acquisition:
MeziMedia will add scale to ValueClick's fast-growing Comparison Shopping segment and give the Company a leadership position in the U.S. comparison shopping market. ValueClick currently is a major comparison shopping provider in Europe under the PriceRunner brand.
MeziMedia will enhance ValueClick's search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) capabilities. MeziMedia has a sophisticated, proprietary SEM platform and significant expertise and experience in SEO and SEM, which can be leveraged across ValueClick's businesses and clients.
MeziMedia will give ValueClick a formal presence in China. MeziMedia has a world-class engineering and operations center in Shanghai and has also launched websites in China for comparison shopping, coupons and search.
"MeziMedia is consistent with our acquisition philosophy and gives ValueClick comparison shopping scale in the U.S., greater search marketing expertise and a presence in China, all three of which are key growth initiatives for the Company," said Tom Vadnais, chief executive officer of ValueClick. "This is an exciting acquisition and we look forward to welcoming the MeziMedia team to the ValueClick family."
"We are proud of our significant accomplishments in comparison shopping, SEO and SEM and believe that the time is right to join forces with ValueClick, one of the largest and most diversified online marketing services companies," said Talmadge O'Neill and Harry Tsao, co-founders of MeziMedia. "We are confident that MeziMedia and ValueClick will enjoy important benefits from this transaction and generate meaningful synergies across the combined businesses."
Under the terms of the agreement, ValueClick will acquire all outstanding equity interests in MeziMedia for approximately $100 million in cash at the time of closing, and contingent cash consideration based on revenue and adjusted-EBITDA(1) performance from the closing date through December 31, 2009. Total cash consideration will range between $100 million and $352 million, depending on whether performance thresholds are met. ValueClick anticipates the acquisition will be accretive on both an adjusted-EBITDA and diluted net income per common share basis.
The transaction has been approved by the board of directors of each respective company and all the stockholders of MeziMedia. ValueClick anticipates the acquisition will close in August 2007, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Upon the transaction's close, MeziMedia's management team will join ValueClick's management team and continue to lead the MeziMedia business. MeziMedia will be included in ValueClick's Comparison Shopping business segment.
Founded in 2001, MeziMedia employs approximately 160 people globally in its Los Angeles area headquarters and Shanghai, China and Tokyo, Japan offices. In 2006, MeziMedia generated approximately $40 million in revenue and was EBITDA, operating income, and net income profitable. For more information on MeziMedia, please visit http://www.mezimedia.com.
ValueClick intends to update its 2007 business outlook upon the close of this acquisition.

Google thinks "flickr censorship = Hitler ringtones"... the social context is missing

from CenterNetworks - by Allen Stern

Earlier today, I posted an article from Franz Patzig about flickr and the censorship from their German customers. Someone then submitted it to Digg. About thirty minutes ago I received an email noting that on Digg, the Google ads somehow matched the story about flickr censorship to ads for Hitler's ringtones.

See the image below. What's interesting to me about this is two things: the content matching might be close to correct I guess if you assume that "germany + censorship" might equal "hitler" but ringtones? Clicking the link gives me one of those crappy monthly ringtone services but no mention of Hitler.

The "social context" is what's missing in these ads. "Hitler Ringtones" which has nothing to do with Hitler looks like SEO desperation on the advertiser's part...Google (and the others) also has a real weakness with the social context of terms. Someone I was chatting with this afternoon mentioned that phrase to me with regards to ads, and you have to wonder as more of us create content online, whether ad companies will start to use this as a part of their matching systems. The algorithms don't understand social context or meaning.

Do you have good examples of very poor ad matching? Leave them in the comments.

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