I recently posted a question on LinkedIn Answers about the quality of competitive web site data you can find at the free sites like Compete, Alexa and Quantcast.  I’ve worked with Quantcast and Compete but I hadn’t heard of Alexa for quite some time (it was quite popular in the early days of the Web, but has not been nearly as visible in recent years).  But due to recent events (described below) I had to quickly learn about Alexa so I posted the question to see if others had insights they could share.  It didn’t take long until I was overwhelmed with responses.  I was surprised by how strongly some felt about the various vendors and thought they would make for an interesting post.

Overall, most feel the info you get from Compete and Quantcast is pretty solid, but not entirely accurate. While it may not be 99% accurate as to the amount of traffic your competitors’ sites are receiving, it is consistent in its methods of measuring activity, so you can have a high level of confidence as to the relative difference in traffic and page views between your site and those of your competitors.

On the other hand, most felt the data from Alexa was very suspect and easily gamed.  Because Alexa relies on browser plug-ins on individual computers to capture information, the results are reported to be somewhat easy to influence.  One marketer noted that the only thing Alexa is good for is to manufacture metrics you can use to show a client how successful you were in marketing their site.  Others were less critical but most felt the data was skewed and unreliable.  See the screen shot below for actual comments.

Back to the reason I started down this path… I recently came across a situation where an agency used the Alexa ranking of a brand new site (vs. that of its peers) as the single metric for success.  Not surprisingly, they achieved their goal of achieving a superior Alexa ranking in less than a month.  Yet the same site doesn’t even register on Compete.com or Quantcast, and it has a Google Page Rank of 1.  You can draw your own conclusions…

I decided to do my own test for my agency’s site and asked some of my team members to download the Alexa plug-in and visit our site each day for a few weeks.  When we started the test on July 15 our site was ranked 990,000 out of 30 million.  Just 2 weeks later, we are now at 730,000.  At this rate we’ll be in the 600,000 range by August 15.  If this plays out, it’s a pretty clear indicator that Alexa rankings are pretty easy to manipulate.

Here is a screenshot of some of the responses (sorry if it’s hard to read). Muy interesante!

Online Media Funnel

Last week I spoke at the Online Marketing Summit’s tour stop in Houston on Demand Generation.  I was scheduled to speak in Dallas and Austin as well, but an unexpected foot injury / surgery sidelined me from travel.

At OMS I unveiled a new presentation that addresses the #1 objective of most marketers: generating leads, sales and other measurable results from online media.  The presentation “Online Demand Generation: Strategy and Metrics” is embedded below for your viewing pleasure; you can also find it on slideshare.  I started by defining “demand generation” (broader and more upscale than “lead gen”), the components of a demand generation program and various roles of online media. I also introduced engagement paths and the importance of defining the right metrics for success.

Also included is a practical methodology for measuring ROI and indexing performance against the market.  As a bonus, I also included my view of the 10 worst and best practices for managing campaigns (would really like your feedback on these!)

I hope you’ll take this information and use the insights to take your business or agency to the next level. And as always, comments are welcome!

Steve Latham

http://twitter.com/stevelatham

There is a major buzz in the SEM community about Stephen Wolfram’s new creation, Wolfram Alpha and the future of Search Engines.  The major difference between your normal Search Engine and the Wolfram Alpha is its SERPs.  Unlike Google and all other search engines, Wolfram Alpha will give you an answer to your search based on the question you ask, one answer which removes the extra (and most painful step in research) of finding the answer.  Now there is no debate that if it works as planned, Wolfram Alpha could change search however I feel strongly that this will not effect SEM and could in fact improve it.  The reason…people want choices and the ability to research/compare products and services.

Imagine going to Wolfram Alpha and asking, “What is the best pizza in Houston?” and given no choices to choose from, just one single result.  From a user experience perspective, my choice has been taken and thereby it is a poor engine for finding services/products.  However, if you are researching a particular subject or needing an answer to a question that has been burning at your brain, Wolfram Alpha will be the answer…literally.  Understanding the ability to choose v. looking for an answer is what will allow Wolfram Alpha to drastically change search and SEM performance for the better.  From a PPC perspective, especially when there is a thin red line between a qualified and unqualified traffic.  An example can be seen in the health industry, where a term like “cancer treatment” can bring in two types of visitors:

1.    a potential patient looking the best place to get cancer care
2.    a student/curious person looking for information on cancer treatment

The same term could currently be spending a good portion of budget on traffic that isn’t interested in your product, but rather just looking for information.  Its tough to weed out this traffic they are using the same keyword to trigger your ads.  You can use negatives to a certain extent, however this isn’t 100% guaranteed.  Now imagine if Wolfram Alpha starts to become the “fact engine” that can provide answers, not results to your questions and it takes this traffic away from major search engines.  That’s correct, you have better qualified traffic that are using the right engine for their needs.  I need a service or product, my best bet is using Google because I will have choices to make the best economical decision.  I have a question, need an answer I will use Wolfram Alpha.  The point, if Wolfram Alpha is all it is cracked up to be, it will make SEM on Google much more effective by removing all of those pesky visitors that click with no intention to buy…

One of the most common mistakes that can be made to any search campaign is shutting down keywords without understanding the role it plays in your overall Search Campaign.  Imagine it’s Game 7 of the NBA Finals and Jerry Sloan sits John Stockton because he isn’t one of the top scorers.  Overall production for the team would fall because you are losing 10.5 assists a game.

This same scenario is what occurs in many PPC Campaigns during the Optimization process where advertisers pause terms that are simply not converting.  A common mistake is the lack of research into the engagement metrics and mapping of your conversion cycle. To understand the role that your keywords play, you must first understand the conversion process for search. The very basic search conversion funnel has three phases:

•    Browsing
•    Shopping/Researching
•    Buying/ Decision Making

Each phase will have a different set of keyword and ad copy strategy to help maximize your efforts from search.  By cutting off traffic from a portion of this cycle, you run the risk of cutting off your keyword conversion funnel.  An example of this, would be the following scenario:

1st search: cosmetics (browsing)
2nd search:  mascara (browsing)
3rd search: waterproof mascara (shopping)
4th search: Blinc brown mascara (Buying) * Converting Term

Reviewing the search funnel above, you see the branded term is what gets credit for the conversion, however the assist terms all played a major role in “assisting” the conversion process.  Many advertisers fail to take the assist terms into consideration when optimizing their account performance and see the end result, overall conversion falling.  In the 2008 Marketing Sherpa Shared Knowledge report it was stated that:

By tracking assist conversions, we determined that customers take about 2 days from the first time they click on a paid ad to the time they convert….many of our conversions consist of customers that have searched using 2 to 7 different keywords.  Customers are doing their research!

So in keeping with the metaphor being used, understanding each role of your keyword list (players) and using them for the greater good of your account (team) will allow you to maximize your returns (win the championship).  If not, you will be stuck with a team full of overpaid and underachieving Prim Donnas, just look at the NY Knicks under Isaiah Thomas…..