Search Engine Marketing News Weekly Newsletter - 2003-10-15

Are search engines confusing surfers?
Source: News.com 2003-10-13
The Federal Trade Commission remains concerned that consumers may not be able to tell when search results are advertiser-sponsored, thanks to sometimes-unclear disclosure on the part of search companies.

Contextual Advertising, Part 2 of 2
Source: ClickZ 2003-10-13
This week we continue the discussion, covering publisher relationships and the conversion equation. How does the existence of a contextual ad unit and marketplace improve publishers' fates (and fortunes)? How will it benefit advertisers?

Starting a New SEO Services Business
Source: PromotionData.com 2003-10-13
If you have ever considered starting a new SEO service company, there are several steps you can take that will get things moving in the right direction. I myself started a company this past year that is already realizing great results.

Internet search engine advertising shows some gains
Source: AdAge.com 2003-10-13
AdAge discusses latest evidence demonstrating how paid-search is rapidly emerging as a central muscle of the Internet advertising business.

New Google and LookSmart Tools: A User's Guide
Source: ClickZ 2003-10-10
The Whats, Whys, Hows and Benefits of new features and enhancements.

Google Rolls Out Keyword Conversion Tool
Source: InternetNews.com 2003-10-09
The new conversion-tracking tool is free to advertisers, allowing them to insert a line of JavaScript into their Web pages to track whether users arriving via keywords convert. In addition to purchase conversion, advertisers can track if a user signs up for a newsletter, views certain pages, or qualifies as a sales lead by giving contact information. As an additional benefit, advertisers can have the value of each conversion sent back to Google and included in their reports.

Get More Out of Pay Per Click Advertising by Measuring ROI
Source: About Web Search 2003-10-09
Elisabeth Olsmeloski of Beyond Ink reviews ClickTracks 4.0 and the impact that it can have on ROI analysis for your Web site.

Dialing in on Channel Conflicts
Source: iMedia Connection 2003-10-06
We can learn a lot from smart brands participating in paid search that not only are embracing the space but also manage conflicts effectively. Here’s an overview of the situation and how a few industry leaders approach conflicts in search.

iframe - Seo No No Or Seo Yay Yay?
High Rankings Forum
"Are crawlers (especially googlebot) known to stop crawling or doing any other weird things on coming across an iframe code?"

Search Engine Friendly Shopping Carts
Webmaster World
"I get asked quite often to optimise ecommerce sites. The problem is that many ecommerce packages make links that are unspiderable. Some of the problems include URL parameters and session ID problems. ...So I'm throwing down the Gauntlet, does anyone know of any other truly search engine friendly shopping cart packages?"

Keyword Research for Product Research
JimWorld
"Obviously, it makes sense to use it as a form of market research to find out what products to target, or what product should be the next one that you add to your lineup. ...I'm curious what other routes people are taking with their keyword research. How else have you used it to work with a client? What other areas of marketing are you shaping with your keyword research?"

Inktomi... Major Changes?
JimWorld
"I've seen a major tweak on geographical targeting. UK Sites I used to rank well on across the board have dropped on MSN.com but soared to the top on MSN UK (the same thing has happened on HotBot). Sites target ted at the US have risen in rank and fallen on other country versions of MSN."